PRINCETON,    N.    J. 


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A  COMPARATIVE 


HISTORY   OF  EELIGIONS 


JAMES  C.  MOFFAT,  D.D., 

PROFESSOR  IN  THE  THEOLOGICAL   SEMINARY  IN  PRINCETON. 


Part    II. 

LATER  SCRIPTURES 
PROGRESS,   AND   REVOLUTIONS    OF    FAITH. 


NEW  YORK : 

DODD  &  MEAD,  PUBLISHERS, 

762    BROADWAY. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress  in  the  year  1873,  by 

JAMES  C  .MOFFAT, 
in  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress  at  Washington. 


Newburgh  Stereotype  Co. 


OOISTTENTS 


CHAPTER  I. 

PAOE 

I.— Aim  of  this  Part 1 

IT. — Primitive  Faith 3 

III. — Creation  and  the  origin  of  Evil 4 

IV. — Antiquity  of  Man 18 

v.— The  Fall 23 

VI. — Life  and  Death,  the  Penalty  and  Reward 25 

VII.— The  Deluge 35 

CHAPTER  II. 

I.— Religion  among  the  new  Population 42 

II. — The  Dispersion 47 

III. — NoACHic  type  of  worship 54 

CHAPTER  III. 

Innovation 58 

I. — Power  of  external  nature  over  Man 58 

II.— Incipient  Mythology 60 

III.— Ritualism 66 

CHAPTER  IV. 

Further  Progress  of  Ethnic  Religions 70 

I.— In  China 70 

II. — Progress  of  religion  in  Egypt 75 

III. — A  Monotheistic  Revival 78 

IV. — Semitic  Migrations 84 


IV  CONTEXTS. 

CHAPTER  V. 

PAGE 

I. — Geowth  of  Legalism  until  the  second  Monothe- 
istic Reformation 88 

II.— Hebrews  in  Egypt 90 

CHAPTER  VI. 

I. — Epoch  of  the    second    Monotheistic    Reforma- 
tion    104 

II. — Hebrew  Exode 112 

III — Legislation  at  Sinai 124 

CHAPTER  VII. 

I. — Subsequent  Progress  of  Legalism 136 

II. — Subsequent  Progress  of  reformed  Legalism 139 

CHAPTER  Vin. 

I. — Progress  of  Avestan  Legalism 146 

II. — Liturgical  Scriptures 147 

III.— Magism 154 

CFAPTER  IX. 
Progress  of  Legalism  in  China ]  61 

CHAPTER  X. 

Progress   of  Legalism   in  the  unrefoemed   Polythe- 
isms   174 

I. — Later  Hindu  Scriptures 176 

II. — Religious  Classes  and  Castes 187 

III. — Brahmanical  Philosophy 189 

IV.— Progress  of  Worship  in  India 204 

V. — Progress  of  Egyptian  Symbolism 210 

VI.— Legalism  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 214 

VII.— Phenician  and  Syrian  Legalism 219 


CONTENTS.  V 

CHAPTER  XI. 

PAGE 

The  great  Revolution  op  Reason 226 

I.— Confucius 220 

II.— Buddhism 229 

III. — Daeius  as  the  Reformer  of  Avestanism 244 

IV. — Greece  in  Religious  Progress 250 

V. — Religion  in  the  Roman  Republic 260 

CHAPTER  XII 

Progress  under  Rationalism 265 

I. — Western  Asia 266 

II. — The  Jews  aftek  the  Captivity 272 

Summary 278 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

The  Spiritual  Dispensation 393 

Recapitulation 303 


COMPAPtATIYE  RELIGION. 

PKOGRESS  AND  REVOLUTIONS  OF  FAITH. 


CHAPTER  I. 
I. 

« 

AEM   OF   THIS   PART. 

Were  there  no  common  principles  pervading  all 
religions ;  or  were  men,  as  religious  beings,  severally 
so  different  from  one  another,  that  knowledge  of  one 
man's  religious  nature  could  be  no  guide  to  that  of 
other  men,  a  scientific  treatment  of  religion  would  be 
impossible.  The  first  thing  to  be  done  in  taking  a 
comparative  view  is  to  ascertain  whether  or  not  there 
are  such  common  principles  in  hum.an  nature,  and  in 
the  conditions  of  human  life,  and  if  there  are,  what 
they  amount  to.  Having  reached  the  conclusion,  as 
touching  the  most  ancient  historic  religions,  that  they 
were,  in  their  primary  elements,  one,  and  that  they  all 
address  the  same  principles  in  human  nature,  we  have 
as  far  as  they  are  concerned,  a  clearly  defined  subject. 
On  the  broad  field  of  the  world  that  subject  moves 


2  COMPARATIVE    RELIGION. 

before  the  eye  of  history ;  and  its  progress  in  the  lapse 
of  ages,  though  going  on  continually,  is  especially  to 
be  noticed  at  certain  great  junctures. 

Of  such  junctures  five,  at  least,  have  entered  so 
deeply  into  the  life  of  mankind  that  general  history 
cannot  be  recorded  intelligibly  without  them.  These 
are,  first,  the  change  whereby,  out  of  the  simple  patri- 
archal religion,  there  was  gradually  constructed  a  legal 
system  of  religious  observances  :  secondly,  that  whereby 
the  legal  observances  were,  in  some  quarters,  adopted 
and  inspired  by  a  monotheistic  reformation ;  thirdly, 
that  whereby  in  the  extremity  of  legal  bondage  and 
degradation,  a  reaction  of  reason  was  created  against 
it ;  fourthly,  that  whereby,  in  the  hopelessness  of  ra- 
tional unbelief,  men  threw  themselves  back  into  legal 
bondage,  or  sustained  a  rational  faith  by  a  philosophic 
system  ;  and  fifthly  ;  that  which  was  efiected  by  the 
introduction  of  Christianity. 

Revolutions  in  religion  have  sometimes  been  pro- 
ductive of  evil,  but  also  frequently  of  good.  Corrup- 
tion proceeds  most  successfully,  and  to  the  greatest 
extremes  by  quiet  development  of  some  originall}^  im- 
perceptible error.  A  revolution  of  faith,  in  order  to 
bo  successful,  needs  to  turn  upon  the  rectifying  of 
some  extensively  recognized  defect  or  abuse  in  the  ex- 
isting state  of  things.  The  periods  of  quiet  progress 
intervening  between  such  great  junctures  are  of  as 
much  historical  importance  as  the  junctures  themselves, 
but  provoke  the  pen  of  the  recorder  less. 

From  one  common  starting  point,  or  from  a  start- 
ing point  as  near  common  as  is  to  be  found,  to  follow 


n. PETMITIVE   FAITH.  3 

the  progress  of  the  ancient  book  religions,  throngh 
their  respective  developments  and  revolutions,  will 
enable  us  to  determine  whether  in  that  progress  there 
are  principles  common  to  all,  and  proper  to  religion 
alone. 

II. 

PRIMITIVE    FAITH. 

Heligion  in  the  oldest  scriptures  makes  no  show  of 
philosophy.  It  is  not  presented  as  a  system  of  doc- 
trines. Nor  is  it  limited  by  definitions,  or  burdened 
by  ceremonies  minutely  prescribed  and  enforced.  It 
knows  nothing  of  a  sacerdotal  caste.  The  father  is 
the  priest  of  the  family,  the  chief  of  the  tribe,  the  king 
of  the  nation.  x\like  among  the  Hebrews,  the  Hindus 
and  the  Chinese,  its  expression  is  that  of  simple  faith, 
its  ordinances  few,  and  admitting  of  considerable  free- 
dom, not  liable  to  be  nullified  by  neglect  of  some 
punctilio.  The  religion  of  the  book  of  Genesis,  of  the 
oldest  Yedic  hymns,  and  of  the  Chinese  records  of  the 
pious  monarchs  Yaou  and  Shun,  referred  by  the  com- 
mon Chinese  chronology  to  a  date  corresponding  to 
that  of  the  immediate  predecessors  of  Abraham,  pertain 
to  the  same  common  patriarchal  type.  Egypt's  only 
remaining  canonical  book,  in  the  successive  forms  in 
which  it  exists,  on  monuments  and  on  papyrus,  repre- 
sents a  similar  comparative  simplicity  in  its  most 
ancient  existing  form. 

So  much  we  have  already  endeavored  to  demon- 
strate ;  but  in  view  of  succeeding  changes,  it  is  impor- 


COMPARATIVE    RELIGION. 


tant  also  to  consider  what  account,  if  any,  those 
ancient  books  give  of  the  causes  with  which  they  are 
concerned. 


III. 

CREATION,    AND    THE    ORIGIN    OF    EVIL. 

All  history  of  human  affairs  is  concerned,  more  or 
less,  with  the  conflict  of  good  and  evil ;  religious  his- 
tory entirely.  The  records  of  faith  are  those  of  a  war- 
fare between  truth  and  goodness,  on  one  side,  and  the 
manifold  forces  of  error,  and  wickedness,  often  defeat- 
ed, but  never  exterminated,  on  the  other.  Both  have 
their  seat  in  the  human  mind  ;  and  the  stake  for 
which  they  contend  is  the  field  of  human  convictions. 

As  the  most  ancient  scriptures  make  little  or  no 
pretention  to  philosophy,  so  neither  do  they  all  at- 
tempt to  recount  the  order  of  preceding  causes,  and 
the  origin  of  evil.  Some  of  the  ancient  stories  of  crea- 
tion and  of  the  primitive  state  of  man  do  not  appear 
in  the  oldest  books,  but  are  the  product  of  later  times, 
or  have  been  carried  down  by  unwritten  tradition. 
In  the  Hebrew  alone  is  such  an  account  given  ex- 
plicitly at  the  beginning. 

Substantially,  that  account  imports  that  man  is  not 
an  ancient  denizen  of  earth.  He  has  been  called  into 
existence  since  earth  assumed  its  present  geological 
condition.  And  that  condition  on  the  geological  scale 
is  comparatively  recent.  The  creation  of  the  universe 
it  refers  to  an  almighty  and  intelligent  cause  existing 
from  all  eternity.     The  order  of  creation  is  recounted 


m. CREATION    AND    OKIGIN    OF    EVIL.  5 

as  it  pertains  to  the  earthly  and  astronomical  conditions 
of  human  life.  The  creation  of  man  himself  is  then 
mentioned,  and  his  state  of  holiness  and  happiness  in 
Paradise.  Then  is  narrated  the  introduction  of  sin 
and  evil ;  not  their  origin.  It  is  presmned  that  sin 
existed  in  another  creation  before  it  biased  the  heart 
of  man.  Man  is  tempted.  From  that  source  all  the 
subsequent  Hebrew  narrative  flows.  And  all  its  doc- 
trines and  observances  are  related  to  a  method  of 
removing  that  superinduced  evil. 

The  Avesta  is  not  a  primitive  religion  ;  but  in  its 
oldest  parts  a  similar  origin  is  assigned  to  the  universe, 
and  an  equally  broad  distinction  made  between  the 
Creator  and  the  creation,  and  a  similar  origin  of  sin  in 
mankind.  A  process  of  creation  is  also  recounted; 
but  not  in  the  oldest  book,  and  only  as  far  as  respects 
the  countries  known  to  the  Aryan  people.  And 
whereas  the  tempting  of  man  to  sin  is  in  the  Hebrew 
referred  to  the  serpent,  in  the  Avesta  it  is  an  act  of  the 
prime  spirit  of  evil,  under  whom  the  serpent  is  one  of 
many  agents.  In  the  first  Fargard,  or  chapter,  of  the 
Yendidad,  which  is  the  Avestan  book  of  sacred  law 
and  not  the  oldest  of  the  canon,  we  find  that  history  of 
creation  and  of  the  introduction  of  evil,  side  by  side. 

I.  1.  "  Ahura-Mazda  spake  to  the  holy  Zarathustra, 
2.  I  created,  O  holy  Zarathustra,  a  place,  a  crea- 
tion of  delight." 

That  paradise  is  called,  in  the  6th  verse, 

6.  "  The  Airyana-vaeja  of  the  good  creation." 

7.  "  Then  Anra-mainyus,  who  is  full  of  death, 
created  an  opposition  to  the  same ; 


6  COMPAEATIVE   EELTGION. 

8.  A  great  serpent  and   winter,  which  the  Dae- 
vas  have  created." 

In  that  e\il  creation  of  Anra-mainyus  there  w^ere 
ten  winter  months,  and  only  two  of  summer,  a  region 
of  prolonged  and  dismal  cold. 

13.  ''  The  second  and  best  of  regions  and  places 
have  I  created,  I  who  am  Ahnra-Mazda : 

14.  Gan,  the  dwelling  place  of  Sughdha. 

15.  Then  Anra-mainyus,  who  is  full  of  death, 
created  an  opposition  to  the  same." 

Thus,  Ahura-Mazda  goes  on  creating  countries, 
beautiful  and  happy,  of  which  some  epithet  of  praise 
is  generally  given,  to  the  number  of  sixteen  countries, 
all  in  that  quarter  of  the  world  with  which  the  Aryan 
people  were  acquainted.  Of  these  the  fifteenth  is  the 
Hapta-Hendu,  that  is,  the  India  of  the  seven  rivers. 

In  the  second  chapter  of  the  same  book  we  find  an 
account  of  the  primal  state  of  happiness  in  the  reign 
of  Yima,  the  golden  age  of  Avestan  tradition.  Yima, 
the  first  of  mankind,  declines  being  a  lawgiver. 
Whereupon  Ahura-Mazda  says  to  him,  "  Then  enlarge 
my  world,  make  my  world  fruitful,  obey  me  as  protec- 
tor, nourisher  and  overseer  of  the  world."  This  com- 
mission Yima  accepts :  and  adds,  "  During  my  rule 
there  shall  be  no  cold  wind,  nor  heat,  no  disease,  no 
death."  So  Ahura-Mazda  gave  him  a  happy  dominion, 
rich  in  good  men,  in  flocks  and  herds  of  cattle,  a  pro- 
ductive soil  and  cheerful,  ruddy  fires  ;  and  the  Creator, 
Ahnra-Mazda,  dwelt  among  them.  Yima's  blessed 
kingdom  was  upon  earth,  the  fabulous  Airyana-vaeja, 
the  Eden  of  Persian  Scripture.     He  rules  over  a  lim- 


m. CREATION    AND    ORIGIN    OF    EVIL.  7 

ited  number,  who  dwell  in  happiness,  "  exempted  from 
all  the  curses  of  xlnra-mainyus." 

These  two  chapters  of  the  Yendidad  are  recognized 
bj  the  best  Avestan  critics  as  not  properly  parts  of 
the  book  to  which  they  are  prefixed.  They  are  prob- 
ably fragments  of  some  more  ancient  one  of  which  the 
rest  has  perished. 

In  the  historical  classic  of  China,  there  is  no  men- 
tion of  creation,  nor  of  anything  prior  to  the  reign  of 
king  Yaou.  And  as  respects  the  origin  of  evil,  men 
are  only  presumed  to  be  so  created  that,  without  wise 
direction,  they  will  fall  into  all  manner  of  evil ;  that 
"the  mind  of  man  is  restless, — prone  to  error,  its  affini- 
ty for  the  right  way  is  small."* 

Later  traditions  on  the  subject,  as  they  do  not 
belong  to  Chinese  scripture,  do  not  come  under  this 
head.  The  cosmological  theories  of  mythologers  and 
philosophers  have  no  right  to  be  assigned  to  the  credit 
of  the  original  national  faith. 

IS'either  do  the  oldest  Hindu  scriptures  present  a 
history  of  creation.  They  do  not  profess  to  be  history 
at  all.  Yet  among  their  oldest  hymns  there  is  some- 
thing that  sounds  like  the  remnant  of  an  ancient  tra- 
dition. In  the  one  hundred  and  twenty-first  hymn  of 
the  tenth  book  of  the  Eig-Yeda,  it  is  said : 

''  In  the  beginning  arose  the  source  of  golden  light. 
He  was  the  only  born  Lord  of  all  that  is.  He  estab- 
lished the  earth  and  sky."  Here,  however,  we  find 
not  the  idea  of  an  eternal  intelligence  ;  but  of  a  God 
coming  into  existence.  In  another  from  the  same  book, 
^Shoo-kinof,  counsels  of  the  Great  Yu. 


8  COMPAEATIVE   RELIGION. 

there  is  an  account  of  creation,  which  seems  like  a  dis- 
tant echo  of  that  given  in  G-enesis. 

"  Then  there  was  no  entity  nor  nonentity  ;  no  world, 
no  sky,  nor  aught  above  it ;  nothing  anywhere,  involv- 
ing or  involved ;  nor  water  deep  and  dangerous.  Death 
was  not,  and  therefore  no  immortality,  nor  distinction 
of  day  or  night.  But  that  one  breathed  calmly  alone 
with  nature,  her  who  is  sustained  within  him.  Other 
than  him  nothing  existed  (which)  since  (has  been). 
Darkness  there  was ;  for  this  universe  was  enveloped 
with  darkness,  and  was  indistinguishable  waters ;  but 
that  mass  which  was  covered  by  the  husk,  and  was  (at 
length)  produced  by  the  power  of  contemplation.  First 
desire  was  formed  in  his  mind  ;  and  that  became  the 
original  productive  seed,  which  the  wise,  recognizing  it 
by  the  intellect  in  their  hearts,  distinguish  as  the  bond 
of  nonentity  with  entity. 

Did  the  luminous  ray  of  those  (creative  acts)  ex- 
pand in  the  middle,  or  above  or  below?  That  pro- 
ductive energy  became  Providence  (or  sentient  souls) 
and  matter  (or  the  elements).  IN'ature,  who  is  sustained 
within,  was  inferior ;  and  he  who  sustains  was  above. 

Who  knows  exactly,  and  who  shall  in  this  world 
declare  whence  and  why  this  creation  took  place  ?  The 
gods  are  subsequent  to  the  production  of  this  world  : 
then  who  can  know  from  whence  it  proceeded,  or 
whence  this  varied  world  arose ;  or  whether  it  up- 
holds (itself)  or  not  ?  He  who  in  the  highest  heaven  is 
the  ruler  of  this  univei-se, — he  knows  or  does  not 
know." 

Hindu  cosmogony  is  abundant,  but  belongs  to  later 


III. CKEATIOX    AND    ORIGIN    OF    EVIL.  9 

and  speculative  works,  fabrications  of  the  theoretic 
fancy. 

The  extant  book  of  the  Egyptian  canon  does  not 
pertain  to  that  subject.  And'  the  fragment  of  the 
Phenician  preserved  by  Sanchoniathon  has  passed 
through  a  process  of  transfusion  into  Greek,  and  then 
of  ignorant  handhng  in  the  Greek,  which  leaves  it 
doubtful  whether  it  is  a  true  representation  of  the 
original. 

Sanchoniathon  took  his  cosmogony  from  the 
Egyptian,  and  mentions  that  it  was  found  written  in 
the  commentaries  of  Thoth,  which  "  were  drawn  from 
his  observations  and  the  natural  signs,  which  by  his 
penetration  he  perceived  and  discovered."  It  seems, 
accordingly,  to  be  substantially  the  account  of  creation 
contained  in  the  ancient  Egyptian  canon,  of  which 
Thoth  was  held  to  be  the  principal  author.  That  San- 
choniathon adopted  it,  is  evidence  that  the  writings 
and  traditions  of  his  own  country  had  nothing  on  the 
subject  which  he  deemed  preferable.  He  claims  for  it 
no  authority  of  revelation.  It  is  only  like  some  other 
things  in  the  books  of  Thoth,  inferred  from  "  observa- 
tions and  natural  signs."  If  Sanchoniathon  and  his 
Greek  translator  are  correct,  it  was  only  an  ancient 
geological  theory.  And  yet  there  is  something  in  it 
which  suggests  the  idea  of  a  tradition  having  a  common 
origin  with  the  Hebrew  account. 

''The  beginning  of  all  things  was  a  dark  and  con- 
densed windy  air,  or  a  breeze  of  thick  air  and  a  chaos 
turbid  and  black  as  Erebus,  and  that  these  were  un- 
bounded, and  for  a  long  series  of  ages  destitute  of 
I* 


10  COMPARATIVE   EELIGION. 

form.  But  when  this  wind  became  enamored  of  its 
own  first  principles,  (the  chaos)  and  an  intimate  union 
took  place,  that  connection  was  called  Pothos ;  and  it 
w^as  the  beginning  of  the  creation  of  all  things.  But 
it  (the  chaos)  knew  not  its  own  production  ;  but  from 
its  embrace  with  the  Wind  was  generated  Mot ;  which 
some  call  Ilus  (Mud),  but  others  the  putrefaction  of  a 
waterj^  mixture.  And  from  this  sprung  all  the  seed 
of  the  creation,  and  the  generation  of  the  Universe." 

^'  And  there  were  certain  animals  without  sensa- 
tion, from  which  intelligent  animals  were  produced, 
and  these  were  called  Zophasemin,  that  is  the  over- 
seers of  the  heavens ;  and  they  were  formed  in  the 
shape  of  an  egg ;  and  from  Mot  shone  forth  the  sun, 
and  the  moon,  the  less  and  the  greater  stars.'' 

*^  And  when  the  air  began  to  send  forth  light,  b j 
its  fiery  influence  on  the  sea  and  earth,  winds  were 
produced,  and  clouds,  and  very  great  defluxions  and 
torrents  of  the  heavenly  waters.  And  when  they  were 
thus  separated,  and  carried  out  of  their  proper  places 
by  the  heat  of  the  sun,  and  all  met  again  in  the  air, 
and  were  dashed  against  each  other,  thunder  and  light- 
ning were  the  result :  and  at  the  sound  of  the  thun- 
der, the  before  mentioned  intelligent  animals  were 
aroused  and  startled  by  the  noise,  and  moved  upon  the 
earth  and  in  the  sea,  male  and  female.''  He  then 
speaks  of  these  as  the  first  men.  A  little  further  on,  a 
briefer  process  is  mentioned.  Of  the  wind  Colpias 
and  his  wife  Baau,  whicli  is  interpreted  JS'ight,  were 
begotten  mortal  children,  whose  names  were  Phos,  Pur 
and  Phlox. 


in. CREATION    AND    ORIGIN   OF   EVIL.  11 

Sucli  apparent  narrative,  in  as  far  as  it  is  not  non- 
sense, is  only  figurative  language  for  certain  operations 
of  nature.  Thotli  was  one  of  tlie  oldest  of  ancients ; 
but  this  cosmogony  of  Lis  would  pass  muster  very 
fairly  with  geological  theories  of  our  own  day.  Be- 
rosus,  an  author  of  the  time  of  Alexander  the  Great, 
w^rote  a  history  of  Babylon.  In  his  first  book,  he 
mentions  that  there  were  written  accounts,  preserved 
at  Babylon  with  the  greatest  care,  comprehending  a 
period  of  above  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  years ; 
and  that  these  writings  contained  histories  of  the  heav- 
en and  of  the  sea,  and  of  the  birth  of  mankind,  as 
well  as  of  the  kings  and  their  memorable  actions.  He 
adds  in  another  place  that  '^  there  was  a  time  in  which 
there  existed  nothing  but  darkness  and  an  abyss  of 
waters,  wherein  resided  most  hideous  beings,  which 
were  produced  of  a  twofold  principle.  There  appeared 
men,  some  of  whom  were  furnished  with  two  wings, 
others  with  four,  and  with  two  faces.  They  had  one 
body,  but  two  heads ;  the  one  that  of  a  man,  the  other 
of  a  woman."  He  then  mentions  various  other  mon- 
strous creatures,  of  all  of  which,  he  says,  were  pre- 
served delineations  in  the  temple  of  Bel  at  Babylon. 
'^  The  person  w^ho  presided  over  them  was  a  woman 
named  Omoroca,  w^iich  in  the  Chaldean  language  is 
the  sea ;  but  which  might  equally  be  interpreted  the 
Moon.  All  things  being  in  this  situation,  Bel  came 
and  cut  the  woman  asunder :  and  of  one  half  of  her  he 
formed  the  earth,  and  of  the  other  half,  the  heavens, 
and  at  the  same  time  destroyed  the  animals  within 
her."     "All  this,"  says  Berosus,  "was  an  allegorical 


12  COMPAEATIVE   RELIGIOX. 

description  of  nature.  For  the  wliole  universe  consist- 
ing of  moisture  and  animals  being  continually  gener- 
ated therein,  the  deity  above  mentioned  took  off  his 
own  head:  upon  which  the  other  gods  mixed  the 
blood,  as  it  gushed  out,  with  the  earth,  from  whence 
were  fonned  men.  On  this  account  it  is  that  they  are 
rational,  and  partake  of  divine  knowledge.*'  But 
when  Bel  had  separated  the  heavens  from  the  earth, 
and  reduced  the  universe  to  order,  the  living  creatures 
unable  "to  bear  the  prevalence  of  light,  died.  Bel 
thereupon,  seeing  a  vast  space  unoccupied,  though  by 
nature  fruitful,  commanded  one  of  the  gods  to  take  off 
his  head,  and  to  mix  the  blood  with  the  earth ;  and 
from  thence  to  form  other  men  and  animals,  which 
should  be  capable  of  bearing  the  air." 

Creation  out  of  nothing  does  not  appear  in  the  re- 
ligion of  Greece.  In  it  the  work  of  creation  is  only 
the  shaping  or  producing  of  one  thing  out  of  another. 
According  to  Hesiod,"  the  beginning  was  with  ele- 
ments in  confusion  and  darkness.  No  idea  is  presented 
of  a  Creator,  or  even  of  an  original  generator  of  life 
and  its  forms.  The  nearest  approach  to  the  latter  is 
Love,  who  himself  comes  into  existence  out  of  Chaos 
and  IS'ight,  but  without  a  cause.  By  Ai:>ollodorusf 
the  old  myths  are  neatly  recorded  and  arranged.  The 
first  of  all  things  are  Heaven  and  Earth.  To  Heaven, 
as  the  father,  Earth,  as  the  mother,  bore  the  hundred- 
handed,  the  Cyclopse,  and  the  Titans.  Of  the  Titans 
the  youngest  was  Time,  who  married  his  sister  Rhea, 
and  became  ruler  instead  of  his  father.  His  youngest 
*  Theogony,  line  116  etc.         f  Book  I.  first  seven  cliapters. 


III. CREATION    AND    ORIGIN    OF    EVIL.  13 

son,  Zeus,  by  aid  of  Wisdom,  daughter  of  Ocean,  be- 
came ruler  of  the  universe  by  the  exclusion  of  his 
father,  and  so  continued  king  over  the  third  generation 
of  gods. 

One  of  the  Titans,  the  more  powerful  class  of  the 
second  generation  of  gods,  was  lapetus,  a  son  of 
Heaven  and  Earth.  He  married  Asia,  a  daughter  of 
Ocean,  and  had,  among  other  children,  Prometheus. 
And  Prometheus,  by  mixing  water  and  earth,  created 
men.  He  then,  beholding  the  uncomfortable  condi- 
tion of  the  creatures  he  had  made,  procured  for  them 
fire,  which  he  brought  down  from  heaven,  without 
consent  of  Zeus.  Prometheus  is,  according  to  this 
myth,  both  the  Creator  of  the  human  race,  and  their 
Savior  from  suffering  and  wretchedness.  It  also  rep- 
resents fire  as  the  element  indispensable  to  the  arts, 
and  to  the  profitable  exercise  of  skill  and  wisdom. 
For  that  benefaction  to  man  Prometheus  is  punished 
by  the-  most  cruel  tortures,  being  fastened  to  a  lofty 
rock,  while  a  vulture  preys  upon  his  vitals. 

Other  myths  represent  certain  families  of  mankind 
as  descended  from  the  youngest  generation  of  gods  and 
mortal  women. 

The  Greek  was  thus  taught  that  men  were  made  of 
earth  by  the  hand  of  a  son  of  a  god,  and  also  that  cer- 
tain families  of  men  were  descended  from  some  of  the 
younger  generation  of  gods. 

It  would  not  be  fair  dealing  with  canonical  books, 
now  dead  and  gone,  to  impute  to  them  all  the  nonsense 
of  their  later  reporters ;  especially  as,  in  some  cases, 
only  fragments  of  even  the  latter  have  reached  us,  and 


14  COMPARATIVE    RELIGION. 

tliat  through  hands  which  may  not  have  done  them 
justice  ;  but  we  are  constrained  to  say  that,  from  all 
we  have  of  the  other  books  of  ancient  scripture,  there 
is  not  an  account  of  creation  which,  for  sobriety  and 
scientific  form,  as  well  as  for  majesty,  is  to  be  parallel- 
ed with  that  of  Genesis. 

"  In  the  beginning  God  created  the  heavens  and 
the  earth.  And  the  earth  was  without  form  and  void, 
and  darkness  was  upon  the  face  of  the  deep.  And  the 
spirit  of  God  moved  upon  the  face  of  the  waters." 

So  far  as  to  tlie  primitive  condition  of  matter,  and 
the  operation  of  an  intelligent  ruler  in  unrecorded 
changes. 

"  And  God  said,  Let  there  be  light :  and  there  was 
light."  "  And  God  said.  Let  there  be  a  firmament  in 
the  midst  of  the  waters ;  and  let  it  divide  the  waters 
from  the  waters,"  "  And  God  called  the  firmament 
Heaven." 

So  far  in  regard  to  the  stellar  universe. 

"And  God  said,  Let  the  waters  under  the  heaven 
be  gathered  together  into  one  place,  and  let  the  dry 
land  appear,  and  it  was  so." 

"  And  God  said,  Let  the  earth  bring  forth  grass, 
the  herb  yielding  seed,  and  the  fruit  tree  yielding  fruit 
after  its  kind,  wiiose  seed  is  in  itself,  upon  the  earth : 
and  it  was  so." 

"  And  God  said,  Let  there  be  lights  in  the  'firma- 
ment of  the  heaven  to  divide  the  day  from  the  night." 
"And  God  set  them  in  the  firmament  of  the  heaven, 
to  give  light  upon  the  earth,  and  to  rule  over  the  day 
and  the  night,  and  to  divide  the  light  from  the  dark- 


III. CREATION    AND    OF.IGIX    OF    EVIL.  15 

ness."  Here  we  have  earlier  aiid  later  geological 
periods,  with  the  relations  of  the  stellar  universe  to  the 
earth. 

"  God  said,  Let  the  earth  bring  forth  the  living 
creature  after  his  kind,  cattle  and  creeping  thing  and 
beast  of  the  earth,  after  his  kind ;  and  it  was  so." 

"  And  God  said,  Let  us  make  man  in  our  image 
after  our  likeness."  "  So  God  created  man  in  his  own 
image,  in  the  image  of  God  created  he  him  ;  male  and 
female  created  he  them."  ^'  And  the  Lord  God  form- 
ed man  of  the  dust  of  the  ground,  and  breathed  into 
his  nostrils  the  breath  of  life." 

"  And  the  Lord  God  took  the  man,  and  put  him 
into  the  garden  of  Eden  to  dress  it  and  to  keep  it." 

God  gave  him  to  eat  freely  of  all  the  trees  of  the 
garden  except  one.  "  Of  the  tree  of  the  knowledge 
of  good  and  evil,  thou  shalt  not  eat  of  it :  for  in  the 
day  that  thou  eatest  thereof  thou  shalt  surely  die." 
Only  one  man  was  made  immediately  of  the  dust  of 
the  ground.  TToman  was  made  from  a  rib  taken  out 
of  Adam's  side. 

Thus  man  was  not  evolved  out  of  something  else, 
but,  with  all  his  proper  powers,  called  into  being  by 
the  iiat  of  God. 

His  Maker  makes  him  in  his  own  image,  and  treats 
him  at  once  as  a  reasonable  being. 

He  is  desio;ned  for  work  in  cultivatino;  the  earth 
and  ruling  over  the  creatures. 

The  Hebrew  scriptures  have  an  adv^antage  above 
all  others  in  this :  thev  beo-in  with  an  intellio-ent  and 


16  COMPARATIVE   EELIGIOX. 

adequate  cause.  The  Greek  begins,  like  the  Egyptian, 
Phenician  and  Babylonian,  with  an  effect  without  a 
cause.  The  former  begins  by  saying  that  God  crea- 
ted ;  then  adds  that  the  materials  called  into  being 
were,  in  the  first  instance,  in  a  state  of  confusion  and 
darkness.  The  Greek  begins  with  confusion  and 
darkness.  The  Hebrew  says  that  out  of  that  confu- 
sion and  darkness  God  made  the  sun,  moon  and  stars 
with  the  earth  and  all  that  is  in  it.  The  Greek  says 
that  Earth,  Erebus  and  Love  grew  out  of  the  confusion 
and  darkness  without  any  cause ;  and  that  from  them 
all  other  things,  even  the  gods,  proceeded  by  genera- 
tion. In  the  Hebrew  view  all  things  have  an  intelli- 
2:ent  cause ;  in  the  Greek  the  orio-inal  elements  have 
no  cause  ;  and  the  first  which  arise  are  non-intelligent, 
namely  matter  and  appetite.  Earth  in  marriage  with 
Erebus  united  by  Love,  should  Love  be  taken,  as  in 
this  myth  it  must  needs  be,  for  the  attractive  principle 
through  whose  agency  matter  unites  and  moves  in 
masses,  it  is  a  non-intelligent  cause.  In  the  Hebrew, 
God  creates  matter;  in  the  Greek,  matter  generates 
the  gods.  The  Hebrew  asserts  the  prior  eternity  of 
God ;  the  Greek,  the  eternity  of  matter  in  confusion. 
AYhatever  may  be  said  of  the  historical  value  of  either, 
it  is  very  clear  that  tlie  logical  advantage  is  on  the 
side  of  the  Hebrew.  One  can  believe  the  Hebrew  ; 
the  Greek  is  inconceivable.  Viewed  in  the  light  of 
theories,  the  former  is  admissible ;  the  latter  absurd. 
If  they  are  both  allegories,  their  comparative  value  is 
not  altered.  If  tlie  Hebrew  is  defended  as  historical, 
there  is  nothing  in  the  order  of  cause  and  efi'ect  to 


SUMMARY.  17 

controvert  it.  The  canse  is  fully  adequate  to  the  effect ; 
and  the  effect  is  worthy  of  the  canse.  That  the  Greek 
should  be  historical  is  impossible.  We  can  believe 
that  an  eternal  and  almighty  mind  shaped,  or  created 
all  things  according  to  a  purpose ;  we  cannot  believe 
that  matter  gave  spontaneous  birth  to  mind.  We 
have  no  independent  knowledge  of  either  one  or  the 
other;  but  the  former  falls  in  with  our  thinking  capa- 
city ;  the  latter  does  not.  It  has  to  be  taken  in  some 
other  than  its  apparent  meaning  to  be  consistent  with 
its  acceptance  by  an  intelligent  people. 


SUIMMAKY. 

1.  Most  is  said  about  creation  in  the  ancient  books, 
and  fragments  of  ancient  books,  of  which  the  origjn 
is  referred  to  Babylonia  and  Syria. 

2.  The  subject  is  touched,  but  more  mythically,  in 
those  produced  at  a  distance  from  that  region  of  coun- 
try, as  in  Persia,  or  Bactria  and  India,  on  one  side, 
-and  in  Greece,  on  the  other.  At  the  distance  of  China 
tradition  about  it  is  very  childish,  while  the  old  his- 
toric classic  makes  no  mention  of  it  at  all. 

3.  Clearest,  simplest,  and  most  reasonable  is  the 
account  contained  in  Genesis. 

4.  The  various  books  and  fragments  agree  in  teach- 
ing, first,  that  before  the  formation  of  existing  things, 
there  was  a  period  of  indefinite  length,  in  which  mat- 
ter existed  in  a  state  of  chaos  ;  second,  that  certain 
classes  of  animals  came  into  being  before  man ;  third, 
that  man  was  made  by  a  special  act  of  a  Maker ;  fourth, 


18  COMPAEATIYE   EELIGION. 

that  he  was  made  by  uniting  something  of  Deity  with 
the  dust  of  the  eartli ;  fifth,  that  he  is  one  of  the  lat- 
est works  of  creation ;  and  sixth,  that  although  made 
holy,  he  soon  became  sinful. 

Traditions  of  the  same  general  purport,  or  of  the 
purport  of  some  of  these  heads,  are  to  be  found  in 
some  more  widely  dispersed  branches  of  mankind. 
"  In  the  cosmogony  of  Peru  the  first  man  created  by 
the  Divine  power  was  called  Alpa  Camasca,  animated 
earth."  The  Mandans  of  jSTorth  America  believed  that 
the  Great  Spirit  formed  two  figures  of  clay,  which  He 
dried  and  animated  by  the  breath  of  his  month,  the 
one  received  the  name  of  the  'first  man,'  the  other 
that  of  '  companion.'  A  similar  belief  was  found  ex- 
isting among  the  aborigines  of  Tahiti  and  the  Dyacks 
of  Borneo." 


ly. 

ANTIQUITY    OF    MAN. 

As  to  the  number  of  years,  which  have  elapsed 
since  the  creation,  opinions  vary  ;  and  to  expect  exact- 
itude and  certainty  seems  hardly  reasonable.  Dates 
are  given  in  the  book  of  Genesis,  but  no  chronology  of 
the  whole  period  it  covers.  'No  definition  is  given  of 
what  is  meant  by  a  year,  nor  in  the  genealogies  by 
''  begat,''  whether  it  refers  to  the  relation  between 
father  and  son,  or  between  an  ancestor  and  a  more 
distant  descendant,  which  latter  is  demonstrably  its 
meaning  in  some  Biblical  genealogies,  according  to  a 

*  Lenormant,  Ancient  Hist,  of  tlie  East,  i.,  9. 


IV. ANTIQUITY   OF    MAN.  19 

custom  preserved  among  the  Arabs,  whereby  direct 
affiliation  is  established  "  by  enumeration  of  the  most 
remarkable  personages,  omitting  many  intermediate 
steps;"  nor,  thirdly,  are  we  certain  that  in  all  cases 
the  true  numbers  have  been  preserved,  as  the  diiference 
between  the  Hebrew  and  Samaritan  texts  is,  in  re- 
spect to  some  of  them,  very  considerable.  IsTor  is  the 
Septuagint,  although  a  version,  to  be  summarily  set 
aside  with  all  the  weight  of  ^N^ew  Testament  sanction 
upon  it.  In  short,  Genesis  does  not  pretend  to  a  scien- 
tific chronology,  but  simply  to  give  the  order  of  events, 
and  succession  of  great  patriarchs,  with  their  respective 
3^ears,  in  the  history  of  its  single  theme,  the  divine 
promise.  Egyptian  monumental  chronology  does  not 
really  begin  until  the  end  of  the  eleventh  dynasty  of 
kings,  and  is  not  only  defective,  but  disconnected.  That 
of  China  is  connected  from  its  beginning  down  to  the 
present;  but  it  begins  with  2356  or  2145  years 
before  Christ.  'No  other  heathen  nation  gives  a  veri- 
table date  of  higher  antiquity.  India  has  no  ancient 
chronology.  But  the  broader  date  in  terms  of  geolo- 
gical periods  need  occasion  little  difficulty.  Man  cer- 
tainty did  not  live  until  the  earth  was  in  a  state  fit  for 
him  to  live  upon  it.  If  when  compared  with  the  life- 
time of  its  individual  members,  the  human  race  may 
seem  to  be  very  old,  the  fewness  of  its  recorded  steps 
in  general  progress,  and  its  obviously  expanding  pow- 
ers declare  it  still  young.  History  knows  of  only 
three  periods  of  progressive  civilization,  rounded  re- 
spectively by  a  general  maturity  and  decline,  and  is 
now  in  the  progress  of  a  fourth.     And  although  the 


20  COMPAEATIVE    RELIGION. 

area  of  civilization  has  become  wider  in  each  succes- 
sive period,  it  does  not  jet  cover  one-fifth  of  earth's 
habitable  surface,  nor  extend  to  a  greater  proportion 
ot  its  population.  Civilization,  hitherto  confined  to  a 
few  favored  lands,  and  colored  bj  their  peculiarities, 
has  only  within  the  present  generation  begun  to  grap- 
ple with  the  larger  divisions  of  the  globe,  and  rise  to- 
wards universality.  In  the  time  when  universal  do- 
minion has  become  too  hopeless  for  ambition,  the  pro- 
gress of  the  race  first  aims  at  universal  refinement. 
Particular  nations  have  become  superannuated,  and 
have  passed  away,  as  roses  drop  from  the  still  produc- 
tive stem,  but  the  race  has  yet  given  no  signs  of  decay. 
Everything  pertaining  to  it  speaks  a  young  and  grow- 
ing vitality.  Its  dominion  in  nature  is  now  greater, 
its  knowledge  broader,  and  its  hopes  more  buoyant 
than  at  any  previous  time. 

Traditional  interpretation  of  the  Hebrew  scripture 
on  creation  takes  the  meaning  to  be  that  Adam  was 
the  first  of  human  beings,  and  that  from  him  all  the 
rest  are  descended.  Some  interpreters  have  argued 
that  other  races  of  mankind  were  in  existence  jl^e^ore 
Adam,  and  adduce,  as  probably  pre- Adamite,  the 'Ne- 
gro and  Mongolian.  Adam  they  think  was  created  to 
be  the  father  of  a  new  race,  more  highly  gifted  than 
any  of  the  preceding,  and  designed  to  be  the  ruler  and 
civilizer  of  the  rest,  and  teacher  of  the  true  doctrine  of 
God.  Others  urge,  on  what  they  think  scientific 
ground,  that  the  various  nations,  or  ethnic  groups, 
have  had  their  origin  in  separate  creations. 

Until  science  demonstrates  some  such  theory  as  a 


V. ^THE    FALL.  21 

fact,  it  cannot  be  accepted  as  an  element  in  history. 
All  the  phenomena  of  the  human  race  can  be  accounted 
for  by  one  creation.  And  ethnology  in  its  progress,  ex- 
hibits every  new  stage  of  certified  attainment  as  a  step 
towards  proving  the  unity  of  human  origin. 


THE    FALL. 


According  to  the  narrative  of  Hebrew  scripture, 
when  earth  was  prepared  for  their  habitation,  God 
created  one  pair  of  human  beings,  and  placed  them  on 
a  part  of  it  most  completely  matured,  and  adapted  to 
subserve  the  wants  of  their  nature.  They  were  created 
of  the  dust  of  the  ground,  but  also  made  living  spirits, 
moulded  after  the  image  of  God,  and  honored  with 
dominion  over  the  earth,  and  its  creatures.  Morally 
they  were  constituted  capable  of  enjoying  the  pleasures 
of  the  true  and  good,  and  of  the  power  of  dominion, 
or  of  sinking  to  the  degradation  and  deformity  of  vice. 
From  this  original  state,  which  was  not  one  of  barbar- 
ity, but  of  simple  delicacy,  educating  industry,  and 
communion  with  God,  it  was  at  their  option  to  rise  or 
sink.  They  might  rise  above  that  beginning  by  infin- 
ite progression  in  skill,  in  dominion,  in  glory  and  in 
blessedness  ;  or  they  might  fall  unspeakably  beneath  it. 
That  they  remained  holy  and  enjoyed  the  correspond- 
ing blessedness  for  a  time,  is  the  belief  expressed  in 
most  of  the  ancient  sacred  books.  A  time  when  men 
lived  on  friendly  terms  with  gods,  and  freely  held  con- 


22  COMPAKATIVE    KELTGIOX. 

verse  with  them  occupies  a  place  among  the  incon- 
gruities of  Greek  tradition.  The  same  thing  appears 
in  the  Roman  mjth  of  the  golden  reign  of  Saturn  ; 
and  in  the  clearest  and  fullest  proportions  in  the  Aves- 
tan  scripture  touching  the  blessed  region  of  Airvana- 
vaeja,  under  the  reign  of  Yima.  All  these  assign  to 
the  period  a  long  duration  ;  but  a  belief  of  the  contrary 
is  indicated  also.  For  when  Prometheus  had  stolen 
fire  from  heaven,  Zeus  in  revenge,  ordered  woman  to 
be  made  out  of  the  earth,  and  endowed  witli  beauty 
and  subtilty  to  work  the  ruin  of  man.  Pandora,  the 
first  woman,  was  the  first  agent  of  evil  upon  earth. 
And  that  Greek  myth  sounds  like  a  confused  echo  of 
the  more  definite  statement  in  Genesis  of  the  creation 
of  Eve  and  of 

"  The  fruit 
Of  that  forbidden  tree,  whose  mortal  taste 
Brought  death  into  the  world,  and  all  our  woe," 

and  like  that,  recognizes  the  period  of  man's  natural 
holiness  as  very  brief. 

Although  the  fact  of  that  spiritual  fall  is  not  re- 
corded in  sacred  literature  or  traditions  of  all  nations, 
its  effects  are.  And  subsequently  to  it,  all  man's 
efforts  for  good,  if  made  at  all,  were  to  be  commenced 
from  a  lower  level.  According  to  the  Hebrew  narra- 
tive, the  original  sinners  were  expelled  from  the 
Paradise,  in  which  they  were  created,  and  driven 
abroad  upon  ruder  lands,  to  earn  their  bread  by 
toil,  which  was  now  to  be  painful.  Their  lives  and 
those  of  their  earliest  descendants  were  extended  to 


V. THE    FALL.  23 

great  leDgtli.  At  the  age  of  nine  hundred  years  the  first 
pair  saw  themselves  surrounded  by  a  large  population. 

Men  increasing^in  vice,  in  proportion  to  that  dura- 
tion of  life,  became,  in  the  course  of  a  few  generations, 
so  corrupt  that  God  is  said  to  have  repented  that  he  had 
made  them.  In  that  first  period  of  their  history,  men 
followed  recklessly  the  dictates  of  their  passions.  The 
force  of  life  was  strong  within  them,  and  its  long  du- 
ration gave  large  range  to  their  propensities,  and  upon 
the  whole,  though  some  rose  to  righteousness,  the  prev- 
alent and  final  result  was  hopeless  depravity.  Much  was 
done  towards  growth  in  knowledge  and  external  polish, 
much  that  retains  its  place  among  the  accumulated 
treasures  of  civilization ;  but  as  touching  the  true  end 
of  human  life,  and  the  mass  of  the  population,  we  are 
informed  of  that  period  that  it  failed  ignominiously. 

Yet  some  enjoyed  the  Divine  favor.  Abel  ofier- 
ed  a  worship,  which  seems  to  have  expressed  his  faith 
in  atonement  by  the  shedding  of  blood  :  and  to  him 
and  his  oflTering  God  had  respect.  After  the  death  of 
Abel,  Cain  and  his  descendants  were  the  only,  or  prin- 
cipal inhabitants  of  the  earth,  until  the  family  of  Seth 
became  numerous  enough  to  divide  the  dominion  with 
them.  A  godless  race,  the  Cainites  retained  of  the 
religious  instruction  of  Adam's  household  perhaps  only 
enough  for  the  purposes  of  civilization,  among  a  few 
who  are  put  on  record  as  inventors  of  some  of  the 
arts.  The  next  mention  of  religion  is  made  in  connec- 
tion with  Seth,  succeeding  antediluvian  history  is  only 
a  genealogy  in  his  family,  including  a  brief  record  of 
the  singular  piety  of  Enoch,  and  terminating  in  ISToah. 


24  COMPARATIVE   RELIGION. 

From  Seth  the  whole  existing  race  of  mankind  is 
descended,  and  only  from  that  branch  of  it  which 
found  grace  in  the  eyes  of  the  Lord.  All  the  other 
children  of  Adam  went  down  under  the  judgment  of 
God  extinguished  in  the  waters  of  the  flood.  And 
the  inheritance  of  sinfulness  continues  even  in  the 
family  which  is  saved. 

Iniquity  unchecked  in  its  prevalence  in  that  long 
period  of  perhaps  not  less  than  two  thousand  years, 
must  have  been  productive  of  great  misery.  The  ten- 
dency of  sin  being  downwards  into  subserviency  to 
brute  forces,  the  great  mass  of  population  must  have 
become  mere  savages.  The  language  of  Hebrew  script- 
ure about  it  is  that  the  earth  was  corrupt  before  God, 
and  filled  with  violence.  So  deeply  was  the  writer  of 
the  original  record  impressed  with  the  degree  and 
extent  of  human  degradation,  that  he  repeats  more 
than  once  the  strong  statement  that  "  the  earth  was 
filled  with  violence,"  and  adds  that  "  all  flesh  had  cor- 
rupted his  way  upon  the  earth." 

In  the  Avesta,  the  work  of  Anra-mainyus,  follow- 
ing the  good  work  of  Ahura-Mazda,  is  everywhere 
productive  of  wretchedness :  and  the  Eden  of  the  good 
creation  becomes,  under  his  blasting  influence,  a  cold 
wintry  place  of  poverty  and  woe.  The  God-given 
warmth  of  the  original  clime  had  ultimately  to  be  sup- 
plied by  the  disco veiy  of  ruddy  fire. 

Prometheus  created  man  in  happiness,  but  after 
Pandora  introduced  sin,  all  kinds  of  sufferings  flew 
abroad  over  the  world.  And  Prometheus  was  dis- 
tressed to  behold  his  creatures  sunk  in  poverty  and 


VI. LIFE  AND  DEATH,  THE  PENALTY  AND  KEWAKD.    25 

disease  and  all  the  woes  of  savagism.  And  fire,  and 
with  it  art,  is  introduced  to  remedy  the  ills.  Ancient 
tradition  in  every  direction,  as  surely  as  it  speaks  of 
the  primal  golden  age,  bears  its  vague  but  persistent 
testimony  to  the  succeeding  declension  into  sin  and 
misery. 

Science,  which  of  course  could  not  possibly  discover 
embalmed  in  the  soil  or  rocks,  any  remains  of  a  brief 
and  simple  horticultural  paradise,  finds  abundant  wit- 
nesses to  the  long  protracted  state  of  degeneracy,  when 
man,  having  lost  the  power  of  holiness,  had  not  yet 
attained  to  that  of  art,  and  when  his  native  dominion 
over  the  lower  animals  having  ceased,  he  had  to  main- 
tain the  brutal  struggle  with  them  by  the  rudest 
material  means.  On  this  point  there  is  a  perfect  con- 
currence of  testimony  among  all  the  scriptures  and 
traditions  which  touch  the  subject  and  the  discoveries 
of  science  relating  to  the  life  of  primitive  man. 


YI. 

LIFE    AND    DEATH,  THE    PENALTY    AND    KEWAKD. 

The  origin  of  sin  in  all  mankind  is  thus  referred  to 
abused  freedom  of  action  in  the  first  man.  The  test 
of  obedience  in  the  newly  created  pair  was  one  address- 
ed at  once,  to  their  sensuous,  intellectual  and  spiritual 
nature.  And  their  fall  was  not  the  beginning  of  evil, 
which  is  presumed  to  have  been  pre-existent ;  but  the 
result  of  compliance  with  a  tempter.  On  this  last 
point,  the    Greek,  Avestan,  and    Hebrew  authorities 


26  COMPAKATIYE   RELIGION. 

But  in  the  Hebrew  scriptures  the  issue  of  the 
temptation  is  a  matter  of  much  higher  import  than  in 
any  of  the  rest.  It  gives  the  key-note  to  all  the  suc- 
ceeding history.  In  that  remarkable  series  of  books,  * 
mankind  is  viewed  as  an  organic  whole,  and  the  fall  of 
the  original  progenitor  as  extending  its  effects  to  all 
his  descendants.  The  first  man  was  in  his  primitive 
state  the  moral  and  religions  representative  of  the  race, 
a  doctrine  rather  implied  than  declared  at  the  begin- 
ning, but  unfolded  in  the  course  of  the  subsequent 
books,  and  brought  out  conspicuously  in  the  Christian 
part  of  the  series.  As  in  Adam's  persistent  holiness, 
it  is  presumed,  all  would  have  partaken,  so  in  his  fall 
all  suffered,  as  he  himself,  something  called  death. 

Life  eludes  our  analysis,  but  demonstrates  itself  as 
an  activity  in  a  peculiar,  and  unmistakable  way.  No 
intelligent  observer  confounds  it  with  the  activity  of 
waters,  winds  or  chemical  forces.  The  necessary  ac- 
tivities of  life  are  those  whereby  nourishment  is  select- 
ed and  taken  in,  assimilation  effected,  and  the  ends  of 
self-perpetuation,  growth  and  fruit  are  produced. 
Without  those  three  there  can  be  no  life  in  creatures. 
Animal  life  manifests  itself  in  an  organism  which  se- 
lects and  takes  in  nourishment  from  the  materials  of 
earth  and  air,  and  which  digests  and  assimilates  those 
materials,  and  in  the  building  up  and  maintaining  of 
the  bodily  frame  and  constitution.  The  separate  vi- 
tality of  intellect  appears  in  observation  and  learning, 
in  reflection  and  appropriation,  and  in  producing  the 
fruits  of  thinking,  as  they  appear  in  feeling,  purpose 
of  mind  and  otherwise.     And  if  we  carry  observation 


VI. LIFE  AND  DEATH,  THE  PENALTY  AND  KEWARD.    27 

into  spiritual  experience,  we  shall  there  also  discover 
similar  appearances  of  vital  action.  For  that  experi- 
ence testifies  to  drawing  aliment  from  communion 
with  God,  and  the  provisions  of  his  grace;  to  the  ap- 
propriating of  these  provisions;  and  the  world  be- 
holds the  fruits  of  growth  in  holiness  and  consistent 
actinn,  thc3  fruit  of  holy  living. 

The  same  series  repeats  itself  in  the  diiferent  sys- 
tems of  which  the  body  is  composed,  and  in  the  various 
faculties  of  the  mind,  being  the  same  in  the  minute 
details  as  in  the  gross.  In  all  functions  of  the  body, 
its  nervous  system,  its  circulating  system,  and  diges- 
tive system,  it  is  the  same  animal  life ;  and  in  all  pow- 
ers of  the  mind,  the  rational,  moral,  aesthetic,  it  is  the 
same  mental  life.  The  co-operation  of  both  constitute 
the  one  peculiar  life  of  the  natural  man  ;  and  the  He- 
brew and  Christian  scriptures,  true  to  the  analogy,  rep- 
resent holy  men  as  enjoying  a  separable  spiritual  life. 

Death  accordingly  is  not  dissolution,  which  is  only 
a  consequence  of  it,  but  simply  the  stopping  of  vital 
action.  When,  in  their  appropriate  conditions,  all  the 
vital  functions  cease  to  act,  the  particular  life  to  which 
they  pertain,  is  done.  When  sinful  man  is  said  in 
scripture  to  be  dead  in  sin,  there  is  great  force  in  the 
expression.  He  is  really  dead,  as  respects  that  life 
which  sin  primarily  affects.  He  does  not  seek  the 
communications  of  divine  favor,  nor  care  to  retain  God 
in  his  knowledge ;  that  is,  he  does  not  take  in  the  ali- 
ment of  holy  life ;  he  does  not  appropriate  to  himself 
that  whereby  a  soul  grows  in  godliness,  and  he  does 
not  produce  the  actions  of  holy  living.     He  presents 


28  COMPAEATIYE   RELIGION. 

none  of  the  signs  of  life  in  the  region  of  spiritual 
things.  Both  positively  and  negatively  the  language 
of  scripture  is  abundantly  justified  by  the  analogy. 

Not  now  to  be  found  in  any  man  by  birth  or  heredi- 
tary descent,  those  spiritual  activities  are  still  neces- 
sary to  the  complete  man  ;  and  their  lack  leaves  a  de- 
fect in  human  nature,  which  is  felt  as  such  by  the 
moral  and  intellectual  being,  a  defect  wdiich  men  in 
general  feel  needs  to  be  made  up,  in  order  that  a  man's 
character  be  all  that  it  should  be.  And  every  one  in 
whom  that  lack  is  sujDplied,  in  however  feeble  degree 
the  new  activity  is  experienced,  is  constrained  by  his 
consciousness  to  refer  it  not  to  a  native  growth  in  him- 
self, but  to  the  interposition  of  a  higher  power. 

Each  of  those  vital  series  acts  through,  or  cooper- 
ates w4th  its  inferior;  the  mental  actions  through  those 
of  the  body ;  and  the  spiritual  through  the  natural 
powers  of  the  mind  ;  each  higher  grade  of  life  retain- 
ing the  service  of  that  which  is  beneath  it. 

The  first  parents  of  mankind,  we  are  informed  in 
Hebrew  scripture,  were  condemned  to  die  on  the  very 
day  in  which  they  committed  their  first  sin.  That 
was  a  practical  reality,  the  most  melancholy  of  all 
historical  facts.  Something  occurred  in  man's  nature 
at  that  time  which  can  be  properly  called  death,  and 
which  manifested  itself  in  the  functions  of  his  spiritual 
life  ceasing  to  act.  And  the  evil  descended  and  could 
not  but  descend  to  ail  his  posterity.  For  he  could  not 
transmit  to  them  what  he  no  longer  had  in  himself. 
Any  kind  of  life  can  propagate  only  itself.  The  vege- 
table contains  no  higher  life  than  that  of  the  vegetable. 


VI. LIFE  AND  DEATH,  THE  PENALTY  AND  REWARD.    29 


The  animal  life  cannot  propagate  the  mental ;  nor  can 
either  of  them  give  birth  to  the  spiritual.  A  tig  tree 
cannot  bear  olive  berries,  nor  a  vine  Hgs.  By  natural 
generation  men  cannot  be  other  than  discordant  within 
themselves.  They  inherit  a  nature  of  which  holiness 
is  demanded  by  its  original  constitution,  but  in  which 
the  functions  producing  holy  action  have  ceased  to  act. 
However  accounted  for,  it  is  undeniable  that  there  is 
found  in  man  that  defect  which  his  nature  does  not 
seem  to  have  originally  been  designed  to  present,  but 
which  by  natural  generation  belongs  to  all  the  race, 
and  which  society  and  legislation  everywhere  recog- 
nize. In  Hebrew  scripture  alone  is  there  a  full  account 
given  of  its  origin  :  and  that  presenting  man  as  created 
holy,  and  with  power  to  remain  holy,  but  as  having 
fallen,  is  a  reasonable  account.  Anything  short  of 
what  that  scripture  makes  it  will  not  meet  all  the  con- 
ditions of  the  case. 

The  action  of  the  mental  and  bodily  life,  are  also 
distorted  by  this  stupendous  defect,  and  many  of  the 
feelings  and  aims  and  aspirations  of  the  intellectual 
life,  belonging  to  its  original  connection  with  the  spir- 
itual, are  unintelligible  to  itself,  or  misdirected,  or 
utterly  unemployed.  And  such  are  the  faculties 
through  which  iniquity  works  its  positive  effects ;  and 
such,  in  their  sense  of  want,  are  those  upon  which  the 
mercy  of  God  can  take  hold. 

At  the  same  time  the  moral  and  spiritual  law  un- 
der which  perfect  man  was  created,  is  not  changed  by 
his  falling  from  it.  Belonging  to  the  nature  of 
God,  it  cannot  change.     That  law  still  demands  holy 


30  COMPARATIVE    RELIGION. 

living  of  all  moral  beings.  Nor  does  it  follow  that  a 
man  thus  degenerate  will  be  ignorant  of  God,  or  insen- 
sible that  he  is  under  duty  to  God.  For  these  are 
matters  belonging  to  intellectual  and  moral  perception 
and  positive  instruction.  But  certainly  a  frequently 
recurring  sense  of  condemnation,  and  of  inability  to  be 
what  he  ought  to  be,  must  belong  to  the  hereditary 
condition  of  man.  In  fact,  the  universal  judgment  of 
mankind  upon  themselves  is  that,  by  some  su]3erin- 
duced  disability,  they  never  have,  of  their  own  effort, 
attained  to  that  moral  position  which  their  nature 
demands;  and  that  they  need  something  to  save  them 
from  some  awful  fate  due  to  wrong-doing  and  wrong- 
being  : — a  most  singular  position  among  creatures. 

The  unity  of  the  race  i5  evinced  in  the  fact  that  all 
nations  have  this  defect,  as  well  as  the  same  essential 
features  of  mental  and  bodily  nature,  and  that  a  sense 
of  the  defect  pervades  all  national  religion  and  legisla- 
tion. It  runs  through  all  history,  sacred  and  profane, 
creating  the  shadows  which  darken  the  page  in  all 
generations. 

Moral  history,  from  the  first,  bears  one  testimony. 
Knowledge  of  right  is  not  so  deficient  as  is  the  ability 
to  conform  to  it.  Barbarism  is  a  degeneracy  of  knowl- 
edge, as  well  as  of  heart  and  practice;  but  even  the 
barbarian  knows  that  he  ought  to  be  better  than  he 
is.  The  knowledge  of  moral  principle  among  ancient 
civilized  heathen  had  a  closer  corresj)ondence  to  the 
revealed  standard  .than  the  forms  of  their  religion  had  ; 
and  yet  the  practices  of  daily  life  among  them  were 
exceedingly  vile,  and  many  ceremonies  of  their  religion 


VI. LIFE  AND  DEATH,  THE  PENALTY  AND  REWARD.    31 

partook  of  the  pollution.  Is  or  is  there  much  improve- 
ment, in  respect  of  purity,  in  christian  countries,  among 
those  who  are  not  christian,  except  in  as  far  as  the 
force  of  christian  society  may  constrain  to  greater 
decency.  Although  the  fundamental  principles  of 
morals  have  been  known  all  down  the  history  of  the 
civilized  world,  and  additions  have  been  made  to  the 
stores  of  moral  instruction  from  time  to  time,  there 
has  really  b^en  no  advance  in  practical  morals,  except 
as  affected  by  the  spirit  of  God  npon  the  hearts  of 
believers  in  revelation,  to  the  renewal  of  them  in  the 
spiritual  life. 

If  holiness  was  ever  to  be  restored  to  human  na- 
ture it  must  be  by  a  new  gift  of  the  Creator.  But 
a  new  act  of  creation  extended  to  the  whole  race  and 
entering  into  natural  generation,  would  have  been  the 
extinction  of  the  race  as  it  was.  The  Divine  plan 
retains  the  race  as  fallen,  and  provides  a  means  of 
engrafting  the  new  life  into  such  individual  souls  .as 
accept  the  gracious  gift.  Spiritual  life  in  man,  ever 
since  the  fall,  has  been  an  engrafted  life,  which  draws 
its  vital  currents  from  the  heart  of  a  Saviour. 

Such  is  the  doctrine  which  gives  its  peculiar  fea- 
tures to  the  Hebrao-Christian  religion.  The  Hebrew 
scriptures  present  it  as  a  scheme,  working  towards 
completeness,  the  vision  and  hope  of  prophecy ;  the 
Christian,  as  one  completed. 

A  religion  holding  to  such  a  fundamental  princi- 
ple, though  it  may  for  a  time,  by  external  circum- 
stances, be  confined  to  a  nation  or  family,  has  no 
peculiar  affinities  to  any  one  nation  or  branch  of  man- 


82  COMPARATIVE   KELIGIOJS'. 

kind.  It  addresses  the  universal  want  of  all  men,  and 
will  take  effect  upon  any  who  believe  in  it.  And 
the  society  of  those  who  believe  in  it,  wherever  any 
number  of  them  are  congregated,  constitute  a  commu- 
nity separated  thereby  from  all  the  populations  among 
whom  they  reside.  It  is  a  religion  competent  to  exist 
in  any  nation,  as  connected  with  the  national  govern- 
ment, or  separate  from  it.  Firmly  self-balanced,  it 
stands  by  itself  anywhere.  The  fundamental  distinc- 
tion which  it  establishes  among  men  is  that  between  the 
righteous  and  the  wicked  ;  the  former  being  those  who 
truly  and  spiritually  belong  to  the  society.  This  dis- 
tinction between  the  righteous  and  the  wicked,  the 
divine  call  of  the  one  and  rejection  of  the  other,  is  the 
grand  theme  of  Hebrew  and  Christian  scriptures,  and 
is  more  strongly  and  broadly  drawn  as  the  history 
goes  on. 

Heathen  scriptures  also  recognize  sin,  and  man  as 
guilty  and  liable  to  punishment.  They  contain  much 
that  coincides  with  Hebrew  scripture  in  moral  and  re- 
ligious observance,  and  the  duty  under  which  man  is  to 
live  holily.  But  the  point  whereon  they  differ  essentially 
is  the  doctrine  of  a  savior.  Hebrew  scripture  is 
throughout  characterized  by  that  promise  of  divine 
mercy,  which  has  a  view  to  the  restoration  of  fallen 
man  to  the  state  of  holiness.  According  to  heathen 
scriptures,  every  man  will  be  treated  by  God,  or  the 
gods,  on  his  own  merits.  Sacrifice  and  ceremonies  ac- 
curately performed,  it  is  thought,  will  propitiate  God. 
But  a  man  must  take  care  that  he  does  all  in  the  right 
way,  and  if  not  well  enough  informed  for  that,  he 


VI. LIFE  AND  DEATH,  THE  PENALTY  AND  REWARD.    33 

must  get  some  better  informed  person  to  do  it  for  him  ; 
but  the  merit  of  the  service  belongs  to  himself,  whether 
he  does  it  or  pays  for  its  being  done.  The  transaction 
is  entirely  between  himself  and  the  god  whom  he  wor- 
ships. The  service  may  be  called  a  mediation,  but  the 
priest  who  ministers  in  it  is  not  a  mediator.  In  all  the 
oldest  scriptures,  the  head  of  the  family  is  also  the 
minister  of  w^orship  for  himself  and  his  household. 
And  for  him  and  them  everything  depends  on  how 
the  god  accepts  their  offering.  A  savior  or  the  prom- 
ise of  a  savior  does  not  belong  to  their  creed. 

In  Hebrew  scripture  everything  turns  on  that 
promise.  It  is  the  principal  object  set  before  the  mind 
of  the  believer,  as  it  was  first  announced,  with  the  oc- 
casion which  led  to  it,  its  progressive  enlargement,  and 
increasing  explicitness,  the  forms  given  to  it,  the  types 
and  ceremonies  whereby  it  was  kept  before  the  people, 
and  impressed  upon  their  attention,  the  occasional 
neglect  which  it  suffered,  the  miracles  w^rought  to  sus- 
tain it,  the  evils,  w^hich  fell  upon  its  enemies,  the  bless- 
ings upon  those  who  trusted  in  and  defended  it,  and 
its  final  fulfilment.  In  the  Christian  scriptures,  the 
chief  object  is  the  present  Saviour,  as  revealed  in  the 
flesh,  his  words,  his  works,  his  sufferings,  the  apostles 
whom  he  sent  out,  and  the  instructions  he  gave  them 
to  communicate  to  the  world,  and  the  powers  with 
which  he  endowed  them.  In  the  sequel  of  that  history, 
the  great  object  has  been  the  Gospel  of  the  Saviour, 
in  itself,  in  its  achievements,  adversities,  conflicts,  tem- 
porary checks,  obstructions  and  victories,  its  advocates 
and  enemies ;  what  has  been  said  to  defend,  and  what 

2* 


34:  COMPAKATIYE   RELIGION.- 

to  malign  it,  the  opinions  whicli  have  been  formed  about 
it,  and  the  effect  it  has  wrought  upon  the  face  of  soci- 
ety, and  in  the  hearts  of  men. 

The  characteristic  of  religious  life  in  man  was  ac- 
cordingly under  the  Hebrew  scriptures,  faith  in  the 
promise  of  the  Saviour  to  be  revealed ;  under  the  chris- 
tian, first,  faith  in  the  Saviour  as  revealed  in  the  flesh, 
and  after  his  removal  from  earth,  faith  in  the  Saviour 
as  revealed  in  the  Gospel ;  together,  in  all  cases,  with 
obedience  to  the  form  of  work  required  by  tlie  exist- 
ing dispensation. 

The  subject  is  marked  by  perfect  unity  and  also  by 
onward  progress  in  successive  stages,  and  its  attitude 
towards  the  sin  that  is  in  the  world  has  at  all  times 
been  that  of  antagonism.  Its  history  from  age  to  age 
is  marked  by  its  own  positions  in  the  warfare ;  at  one 
time,  as  a  single  family  moving  with  circumspection  in 
the  midst  of  a  world  fast  sinking  into  corruption,  at 
another,  as  a  brave  and  victorious  people,  raising  the 
banner  of  the  Lord  of  Hosts  before  idolatrous  and 
profligate  nations;  again  as  a  multitude  of  far  and 
widely  dispersed  captives,  testifying  before  the  heathen 
by  much  long-suffering  and  practical  piety  their  faith 
in  the  God  of  Promise,  and  then,  as  a  continually  in- 
creasing army  of  confessors,  contending  for  the  faith 
in  a  Saviour  revealed,  it  has  all  along  been  one,  but 
progressive  in  fullness,  in  clearness,  and  in  the  extent 
of  its  influence  over  men. 

Yet  that  difference  between  the  Hebrew  and  other 
ancient  religions  is  but  little  apparent  in  their  earlier 
stages. 


VII. THE   DELUGE.  35 

YIL 

THE  DELUGE. 

In  the  Hebrew  scriptures  a  large  place  is  occupied 
with  the  account  of  a  general  Deluge,  in  which  all 
mankind  are  destroyed,  except  one  family.  They  are 
destroyed  for  their  wickedness.  Koah  with  his  three 
sons  are  saved  for  their  piety  towards  God.  And  the 
means  whereby  they  are  saved  is  an  ark  prepared  by 
Koah,  at  God's  command.  By  the  same  means,  the 
breeds  of  land  animals  and  of  birds  were  also  preserv- 
ed. The  flood  rose  above  all  the  hills,  and  lasted  one 
year  and  ten  days,  from  its  beginning  until  the  earth 
was  dried  sufficiently  for  the  imprisoned  family  to 
leave  the  ark. 

A  similar  catastrophe  is  mentioned  in  some  other 
ancient  records,  but  not  in  all  the  oldest  scriptures. 
Kext  to  the  Hebrew  narrative,  the  fullest  under  this 
head  is  the  Babylonian,  as  it  appears  in  the  fragments 
of  Berosus,  now  enlarged  by  the  discoveries  of  recent 
antiquarian  research. 

The  reigns  of  the  first  ten  kings  of  the  Chaldeans 
collectively  amounted  to  an  hundred  and  twenty  sari, 
or  four  hundred  and  thirty-two  thousand  years.  The 
tenth,  called  Xisthrus,  or  Sisithrus,  reigned  eighteen 
sari.""  ''In  his  time  happened  a  great  deluge;  the 
history  of  which  is  thus  described.  The  Deity  Cronus 
appeared  to  him  in  a  vision,  and  warned  him  that  upon 
the  fifteenth  day  of  the  month  Daesius  there  would  be 

*  A  Sarus  is  tliree  tliousand  six  hundred  years. 


36  COMPAEATIVE    EELIGION. 

a  flocnil,  by  which  mankind  wonld  be  destroyed.  He 
therefore  enjoined  him  to  write  a  history  of  the  begin- 
ning, procedure,  and  conchision  of  all  things ;  and  to 
bnry  it  in  the  city  of  the  sun  at  Sippara ;  and  to  build 
a  vessel,  and  take  with  him  into  it  his  friends  and 
relations,  and  to  convey  on  board  everything  necessary 
to  sustain  life,  together  with  all  the  different  animals, 
both  birds  and  quadrupeds,  and  trust  himself  fearlessly 
to  the  deep.  Having  askqd  whither  he  was  to  sail, 
he  was  answered  "To  the  gods;"  upon  which  he 
offered  up  a  prayer  for  the  good  of  mankind.  Then 
not  failing  in  obedience,  he  built  a  vessel  five  stadia  in 
length  and  two  in  breadth.  Into  this  he  put  every- 
thing he  had  prepared ;  and  last  of  all  conveyed  into 
it  his  wife,  his  children,  and  his  friends. 

After  the  flood  had  been  upon  the  earth,  and  was  in 
time  abated,  Xisthrus  sent  out  birds  from  the  vessel ; 
which  not  finding  any  food,  nor  any  place  whereon  to 
rest,  returned  to  him  again.  After  an  interval  of 
some  days,  he  sent  them  forth  a  second  time;  and 
they  now  returned  with  their  feet  tinged  with  mud. 
He  made  a  trial  a  third  time  with  the  birds ;  but  they 
returned  to  him  no  more;  whence  he  judged  that  the 
surface  of  the  earth  had  appeared  above  the  waters. 
He  therefore  made  an  opening  in  the  vessel,  and  upon 
looking  out  found  that  it  was  stranded  upon  the  side 
of  some  mountain ;  upon  which  he  immediately  quit- 
ted it  with  his  wife,  his  daughter  and  the  pilot.  Xis- 
thrus then  paid  his  adoration  to  the  earth ;  and  hav- 
ing constructed  an  altar,  offered  sacrifices  to  the  gods, 


VII. THE    DELUGE.  37 

and,  with  those  who  had  come  out  of  the  vessel  with 
him,  disappeared. 

Thej  who  remained  within,  finding  that  their 
companions  did  not  return,  quitted  the  vessel  with 
many  lamentations,  and  called  continually  on  the 
name  of  Xisthrus.  Him  they  saw  no  more ;  but 
they  could  distinguish  his  voice  in  the  air,  and  could 
hear  him  admonish  them  to  pay  due  regard  to  religion ; 
and  likewise  inform  them  that  it  was  on  account  of 
his  piety  that  he  was  translated  to  live  with  the  gods ; 
that  his  wife  and  daugliter  and  the  pilot  had  obtained 
the  same  honor.  To  this  he  added  that  they  should 
return  to  Babylonia ;  and,  as  it  was  ordained,  search 
for  the  writings  at  Sippara,  which  they  were  to  make 
known  to  all  mankind :  moreover,  that  the  place 
wherein  they  then  were,  w^as  the  land  of  Armenia. 
The  rest  having  heard  these  words,  offered  sacrifices 
to  the  gods ;  and  taking  a  circuit,  journeyed  towards 
Eabylonia. 

The  vessel  being  thus  stranded  in  Armenia,  some 
part  of  it  yet  remains  in  the  Corcyraean  mountains  of 
Armenia  ;  and  the  people  scrape  oft'  the  bitumen,  with 
which  it  had  been  outwardly  coated,  and  make  use  of 
it  by  way  of  an  alexipharmic  and  amulet.  And  when 
they  had  returned  to  Babylon,  and  had  found  the  writ- 
ings at  Sippara,  they  built  cities  and  erected  temples  ; 
and  Babylon  was  thus  inhabited  again. ^ 

Another  version  of  the  story  is  given  by  Abydenus, 
and  quoted  also  by  Syncellus  and  Eusebius.     In  both 

*  Syncel.  Chron.  28.  Euseb.  Chron.  5.  8. — Cory's  Ancient  Frag- 
ments, 29. 


38  COMPARATIVE    RELIGION. 

copies  it  IS  obviously  colored  by  contact  with  Greek 
ideas  and  mythology.  Nor  is  it  certain  how  much  of 
its  substance  is  due  to  the  knowledge  of  the  Hebrew 
scriptures  on  the  part  of  Berosus  himself,  or  of  the 
sources  from  which  he  drew,  or  what  it  may  have  re- 
ceived from  the  Christian  authors  among  whose  quota- 
tions we  find  it. 

In  Greece  the  story  of  Deucalion  presents  some  of 
the  same  features.  When  Zeus  had  resolved  to  destroy 
the  degenerate  race  of  men  who  inhabited  the  earth, 
Deucalion,  on  the  advice  of  his  father,  Prometheus, 
built  a  ship,  and  carried  into  it  stores  of  provisions ; 
and  when  Zeus  poured  rain  from  heaven,  and  ''  sent  a 
flood  all  over  Hellas,  which  destroyed  all  its  inhabi- 
tants, Deucalion  and  his  wife  Pyrrha  alone  were  saved. 
After  their  ship  had  been  floating  about  for  nine  days, 
it  landed,  according  to  the  common  tradition,  on  Mount 
Parnassus.''  Other  versions  refer  the  scene  of  the  land- 
ing-to  other  mountains,  and  by  a  reckless  inconsistency 
represent  some  people  as  saved  by  climbing  various 
mountains.  "  When  the  waters  had  subsided,  Deuca- 
lion ofl'ered  up  a  sacriflce  to  Zeus,  the  helper  of  fugi- 
tives." Through  Deucalion  and  Pyrrha  the  human 
race  was  restored,  not  in  a  natural  but  supernatural 
way,  by  throwing  stones  behind  them.  That  last  part 
of  the  story  is  nothing  but  a  pla}^  upon  the  Greek 
word  laas,  a  stone,  in  its  resemblance  to  laos,  people, 
the  fancy  of  an  ignorant  etymology.  The  substantial 
story  is  ancient,  part  of  it  being  cited  by  Pindar."^     It 

^  Olympics  ix.  64.  etc. 


VII. THE   DELUGE.  39 

is  meutioned  more  fully  by  Apollodorns,*  and  the 
Scholiast  on  Pindar.  And  its  resemblance  to  the 
flood  of  ]N^oah  is  obvious.  Its  inconsistencies  mark  it 
as  having  existed  in  several  local  traditions. 

The  story  of  the  deluge  with  several  of  its  pecu- 
liar features  was  found  among  the  aboriginal  Mexicans 
and  Peruvians,  though  varying  somewhat  as  told  by 
their  different  nations.  The  tradition  of  the  Mechoa- 
caneses,  a  Mexican  people,  was  that  in  the  termination 
of  the  first  age  of  the  world  by  a  universal  deluge, 
"  Tezpi  embarked  in  a  spacious  vessel,  w4th  his  wife, 
his  children,  and  many  animals,  and  such  seeds  as  were 
necessary  for  the  subsistence  of  mankind.  When  the 
Great  Spirit  ordered  tlie  waters  to  subside,  Tezpi  sent 
out  of  the  ark  a  vulture.  That  bird,  which  lived  on 
dead  bodies,  did  not  come  back,  on  account  of  the 
great  number  of  corpses  scattered  on  the  recently  dried 
earth.  Tezpi  sent  other  birds,  among  whom  the  hum- 
ming bird  alone  returned,  holding  in  its  mouth  a 
branch  with  leaves.  Then  Tezpi  seeing  that  the  soil 
w^as  beginning  to  be  covered  with  new  verdure,  came 
out  of  his  ship,  on- the  mountain  Colhuacan."  f 

Similar  traditions,  though  less  definite  and  complete, 
are  to  be  found  among  Celtic  and  Sclavonian  antiqui- 
ties, among  Phrygians  and  Kalmucks,  and  w^ere  even 
met  with  by  early  visitors  to  this  country  among  some 
of  the  barbarous  aborigines. 

In  Egypt  and  other  countries  of  Africa  the  case  is 

*  Lib.  i.  7. 

f  Humboldt  Monuments  of  tlie  indigenous  people  of  America, 
vol.  ii.  p.  77.  as  quoted  by  Lenormant. 


40  COMPAEATIVE    EELTGION. 

different.  Egypt,  in  her  own  monuments  and  in  tlie 
royal  lists  of  Manetho,  gives  no  intimation  that  she 
knew  of  any  flood,  save  that  of  her  annual  blessing 
from  the  Nile.  In  the  Chinese  historic  classic  there 
is  much  recorded  about  floods,  destructive  and  far 
spreading ;  but  they  are  due  merely  to  the  swelling  of 
the  great  rivers,  and  are  checked  by  the  efforts  of 
skihYil  and  laborious  engineering. 

Kecords,  or  traditions  of  a  universal  deluge,  are  not 
retained  in  all  nations,  but  are  so  widely  spread  among 
those  lying  near  the  original  homestead  of  the  race, 
and  even  by  some  of  the  furthest  removed,  and  pre- 
sent, in  so  many  places,  the  same  peculiar  features, 
that,  whatever  difficulties  may  exist  in  the  case,  the 
only  reasonable  explanation  of  them  is  that  they  all 
take  their  rise  from  one  and  the  same  great  fact. 

As  to  explanation  of  the  flood,  by  what  means  it 
was  brought  about,  how  far  it  extended,  how  it  rose, 
and  what  changes  it  wrought  upon  the  upper  strata  of 
the  earth,  it  belongs  to  physical  geography.  There  are 
various  classes  of  opinion  about  it. 

First  are  the  theories  wdiich  identify  it  with  some 
geological  revolution,  such  as  the  immense  irruption 
of  waters,  with  icebergs  and  boulders,  from  the  north, 
which  closed  the  tertiary  period. 

Second,  the  opinion  that  it  was  a  local  catastrophe, 
limited  to  the  part  of  the  earth  which  was  then  the 
residence-  of  the  human  race ;  but  extending  to  all 
that. 

Third,  the  opinion  that  it  consisted  of  different  lo- 
cal floods  occurring  in  different  countries  at  different 
periods,  and  in  some  countries  not  at  all. 


VII. — THE   DELUGE.  41 

Fourth,  those  who  hold  to  the  existence  of  pre- 
Adamite  races  argue  that  the  flood  extended  to  only 
the  settlements  of  the  Adamite.  Because  the  \Yriter 
of  that  part  of  Genesis,  speaking  of  the  people  who 
were  "swallowed  up  by  the  deluge,  calls  them  Haad- 
am,  Adamite  mankind."  The  Ish  was  the  earlier  cre- 
ated physical  man.  The  Adamite  was  created  a  nobler 
race  to  govern  and  civilize,  and  be  as  a  god  upon  the 
earth.  When  it  sunk  into  sin,  it  did  not  answer  the 
purpose  of  its  being,  and  was  destroyed,  to  give  place 
to  the  better  part  of  it  alone,  which  should  be  a  ruler, 
but  on  a  lower  level.  The  Adam,  not  the  Ish,  suffered 
in  the  flood. 

And  fifth,  is  the  traditional  interpretation  of  He- 
brew scripture,  that  the  flood  covered  the  whole  earth, 
and  involved  in  its  calamity  all  the  inhabitants  of  the 
dry  land  with  exception  of  only  those  saved  in  tlie 
ark. 


CHAPTEE  11. 
I. 

RELIGION  AMONG  THE  NEW  POPULATION. 

When  the  family  of  l^oah  descended  from  the  ark, 
it  was  to  find  the  earth  changed  in  appearance,  ploughed 
and  furrowed  by  the  action  of  the  flood,  and  in  many 
places  still  saturated  with  its  slowly  receding  waters. 
Although  the  surface  of  the  ground,  as  it  met  the  eye 
from  the  resting-place  of  the  ark,  was  comparatively 
dry,  numerous  lakes  still  glistened  in  the  bosom  of  the 
valleys,  and  on  the  concavities  of  the  plains,  and  the 
low  country,  to  a  large  extent,  was  deep  and  uninhab- 
itable marsh.  Only  upon  the  slopes  of  the  uplands 
was  the  soil  yet  prepared  for  the  comfortable  and 
healthful  residence  of  man. 

Providence  had  accordingly  assigned  as  the  land- 
ing place,  not  the  summit  of  an  inaccessible  and  snow- 
covered  peak,  as  asserted  in  a  most  absurd  tradition, 
but  some  part  of  a  mountainous  country,  upon  the  de- 
clivities of  which  the  soil  was  fast  taking  its  covering 
of  green  and  tender  herbage  for  the  long-imprisoned 
cattle,  and  was  already  fitted  for  culture  at  the  hands 
of  man.  That  country  is  in  the  primitive  record  call- 
ed Ararat.  But  the  boundaries  of  Ararat,  as  under- 
stood when  the  eighth  chapter  of  Genesis  was  written, 


I. EELIG-ION    AMOXG    THE    NEW    POPULATION.         43 

are  not  stated.  I^o  passage  of  scripture  goes  further 
than  the  eightli  chapter  of  Genesis  to  determine  its 
locality.  The  Septuagint  version  leaves  the  name  un- 
changed ;  the  Chaldee  and  Syriac  render  it  Kardu,  and 
the  Latin  Yulgate,  Armenia.  In  the  renderings,  most 
weight  is  to  be  attached  to  the  Clialdee.  It  is  plain 
that  in  the  Hebrew,  the  name  Ararat  was  applied  to 
the  mountainous  country  lying  on,  and  to  the  east  of 
the  Tigris,  and  constituting,  in  that  quarter,  the -west- 
ern frontiers  of  the  great  plateau-  of  Iran.  It  was  as 
they  journeyed  "  from  the  east,''  that  the  new  popula- 
tion subsequently  came  to  the  plain  of  Shinar;  a 
statement  which  stands  in  conflict  with  no  other  pas- 
sage of  the  sacred  record,  and  can  create  difficulty  only 
to  the  advocates  of  a  fable. 

The  tradition  that  the  ark  rested  upon  the.  summit 
of  Mount  Massis  in  Armenia  is  not  difficult  to  account 
for,  were  it  not  so  absurd  in  itself.  .  In  that  mountain 
land  to  some  part  of  which  the  scripture  narrative  un- 
doubtedly refers,  Armenia  contains  the  highest  moun- 
tains, and  of  these  the  most  elevated  peak  is  the  Mas- 
sis.  Now  as  the  flood  Avas  over  all  the  earth,  and  the 
highest  mountains  were  covered,  it  was  assumed  that 
the  place  for  the  ark  to  land  must  be  the  part  which 
was*lirst  dry, — the  top  of  the  highest  mountain  in  the 
then  known  world.  But  those  who  framed  the  tradi- 
tion overlooked  some  serious  objections,  among  others 
the  difficulty  of  descending  that  particular  mountain, 
especially  for  some  of  the  animals,  as  horses,  cows, 
elephants,  hogs,  and  others  not  very  sure-footed  on 
steep  and  slippery  places.     Mount  Massis  is  more  than 


44  COMPARATIVE   KELTGIOK. 

seventeen  thousand  feet  high, — two  thousand  feet 
higher  than  Mont  Blanc, — covered  with  perpetual 
ice,  and  snow,  for  three  miles  from  the  summit  down- 
ward by  the  least  arduous  steep,  and  so  difficult  to 
traverse,  that  until  1829,  when  it  was  ascended  by 
Prof.  Parrot,  the  top  had  never  been  reached  within 
the  memory  of  man.  At  that  altitude,  the  cold  would 
have  been  fatal  to  many  of  the  animals  contained  in 
the  ark,  and  without  abundant  fuel,  every  liquid  would 
have  been  frozen  solid.  But  the  ark,  according  to  the 
story,  remained  with  all  its  cargo  in  that  position 
about  half  a  year.  One  would  think  that  Noah  must 
have  regretted  the  departure  of  the  flood.  His  easiest 
way  of  getting  down  would  have  been  on  the  bosom 
of  its  subsiding  waters. 

Scripture  makes  no  mention  of  a  mountain  called 
Ararat,  nor  of  any  other  mountain,  on  which- the  ark 
rested.  Ararat  is  always  in  scripture  the  name  of  a 
country,  over  the  mountains  of  which  the  ark  first 
came  to  rest,  or  on  some  one  of  which  it  finally  landed. 

Neither  is  the  Massis  called  Ararat  by  the  people 
of  the  country  where  it  stands.  That  name  is  given  it 
only  by  believers  in  the  tradition.  Prof.  Parrot  tak- 
ing it  to  be  scripture,  admits  that  ''  an  Armenian, 
though  from  the  holy  mountain  himself,  if  asked  a^out 
Ararat,  would  appear  as  ignorant  as  a  European  inter- 
rogated respecting  Massis."  *  All  traditions  of  the 
flood  mention  the  landing  of  the  ark  on  a  mountain, 
some  of  them  reasonably,  and  some  of  them  unreason- 
ably high ;  but  this  which   has    been  palmed  upon 

*  Parrot's  Journey  to  Ararat,  Chapter  vii. 


I. RELIGION   AMONG    THE   NEW   POPULATION.         45 

Armenia,  and  founded  upon  a  blunder  in  the  reading 
of  scripture,  transcends  to  a  degree  which  is  hidicrous. 
Xoah,  upon  descending  from  the  ark,  built  an 
altar,  and  oifered  a  burnt  offering  thereon :  and  the 
Lord  accepted  it  as  worship ;  another  feature  which 
the  traditions  have  retained.  So  much,  and  doubtless 
more,  was  brought  from  tlie  antediluvian  world.  It 
implied  the  fundamental  elements  of  all  religion  ; 
namely,  confession  of  sin,  and  trust  for  salvation  in  the 
meaning  of  sacrifice,  and  approach  to  God  in  prayer 
thereby.  But  in  addition  thereto,  and  on  that  basis, 
God  now  entered  into  a  new  covenant  with  man,  the 
terms  of  which  comprehended  grants,  commands  and 
promises. 

I.  The  first  head  pertained  to  man's  use  of  the 
earth  and  inferior  creatures.  First  the  grant  of  domin- 
ion in  the  earth  was  renewed  ;  but  was  henceforth  to 
be  exercised  over  animals  by  inspiring  them  with  fear ; 
second,  permission  was  given  to  use  animal  food,  but 
not  with  the  blood. 

II.  The  commands  pertained  to  the  preservation 
of  the  human  race. 

First,  the  command  to  multiply  and  replenish  the 
earth  was  renewed. 

Second,  a  special  declaration  was  issued  that  every 
man  should  be  held  under  obligation  to  care  for  the 
life  of  his  neighbor,  and  defend  it  against  violence. 

Third,  sentence  was  pronounced  against  the  shedder 
of  human  blood,  that  by  man  should  his  blood  be  shed. 

III.  The  promises  were  such  as  to  give  confidence 
in  the  order  of  nature. 


4:6  COMPARATIVE    EELIGIOX. 

First,  God  promised  not  to  curse  the  ground  any 
more  for  man's  sake  : 

Second,  not  to  smite  again  all  living  creatures,  as 
had  been  done  in  the  flood  :  and 

Third,  that  the  order  of  the  seasons  should  con- 
tinue undisturbed. 

lY.  And  finally,  God  pointed  to  the  rainbow  as  a 
pledge,  declaring  that  as  sure  as  that  inevitable  sign 
appeared  in  the  cloud,  so  sure  was  the  promise  tliat  a 
flood  of  water  should  not  again  destroy  all  the  inhabi- 
tants of  earth. 

God  made  known  his  will  by  revealing  himself  to 
the  patriarch,  who  thereby  became  the  depositary  of  di- 
vine truth,  and  its  prophet.  In  offering  sacrifice  IS^'oah 
performed  duties  which  were  acceptable  to  God.  He 
was  therefore  also  its  legitimate  priest.  And  being  the 
head  of  the  race  descended  from  him,  as  to  its  civil 
government,  the  patriarch  united  in  himself  all  the 
three  offices  of  religion,  instruction  and  government, 
at  once  priest,  prophet  and  king. 

The  covenant  was  one  in  which  the  long  suffering 
of  God  was  more  fully  manifested  as  added  to  the 
promise  made  to  Adam  after  the  fall ;  and  for  man  it 
introduced  a  state  of  larger  toleration  and  privilege ; 
and  it  was  made  with  Noah  for  all  the  world  of  its 
day.  The  circumstances,  in  which  the  new  history 
opens,  are  more  favorable  for  another  reason,  that  the 
abandoned  race  of  Cain  exist  no  more.  Mankind  re- 
commenced with  one  pious  family  brought  up  in  the 
knowledge  of  the  Lord  God  of  heaven  and  earth. 
There  was  no  plurality  of  gods,  nor  diversity  of  creed 


II. THE   DISPEKSION.  47 

or  of  worship  in  tlie  family  of  Xoah.  The  curse  pro- 
nounced npon  Canaan  was  not  for  any  dissent  from  the 
faith  of  his  (grandfather  recorded  ao^ainst  him,  thouo^h 
why  upon  him  rather  than  upon  liis  father  or  any  oth- 
er of  his  fatlier's  children  is  not  mentioned.  The  occa- 
sion which  led  to  it  was  a  moral  not  a  religious  fault. 

As  appears  from  the  language  of  the  ancient  rec- 
ord, the  first  residence  of  man,  after  the  flood  was  to 
the  eastward  more  or  less  directly,  of  Babylon,  and  in 
a  mountainous  country.  And  it  would  seem  that  they 
had  remained  there  for  a  considerable  time.  For  upon 
the  migration  into  Shinar,  they  are  mentioned  in  terms 
which  imply  a  large  population.  Inhabitants  of  the 
dry  countries  had  no  motive  to  tempt  the  unhealthy 
marshes  until  their  numbers  became  inconveniently 
great.  Scripture  states  explicitly  that  the  settlers  of 
Shinar,  that  is  of  the  two  rivers  in  Babylonia,  and  who 
were  both  Hamitic  and  Semitic,  came  there  from  the 
east.  And  otherwise  it  is  determined  that  the  Japhetic 
settlements  set  off  from  the  same  quarter,  namely,  the 
highlands,  or  tableland  of  Iran.  In  this  respect,  the 
Hebrew  narrative  is  entirely  consistent  with  itself, 
with  primitive  traditions  of  other  countries  and  with 
ethnological  science. 


II. 

THE   DISPEESION". 


From  the  words  applied  to  the  journeyings  of 
the  family  of  ]N"oah,  it  appears  that  the  state  of 
society,  in  the  period  which  intervened  between  their 


48  COMPAEATIVE    RELIGION. 

descending  from  the  ark  and  their  settling  in  Shinar, 
was  nomadic.  Upon  the  pastures  of  the  uplands 
they  had  pursued  that  kind  of  life,  which  is  almost 
unavoidable  there.  But  when  in  the  course  of  their 
removals,  they  came  upon  the  broad  and  fertile  plains 
of  the  lower  Euphrates  and  Tigris,  they  determined  to 
migrate  no  more.  Still,  in  such  a  low  country,  the  fear 
of  another  deluge  rose  before  them,  and  in  building 
their  city  they  conceived  also  the  design  of  erecting  a 
mountainous  tower,  whose  top  should  reach  to  heaven, 
and  by  which  they  should  also  make  themselves  a 
name.  The  original  bond  of  society  had  not  yet  been 
broken ;  they  were  still  one  family  of  one  language  and 
one  dialect.  Nor  was  that  original  unity  dissolved, 
that  original  tongue  divided,  until  the  opening  of  the 
fourth  or  fifth  generation,  if  not  later. 

Most  of  the  colonies,  by  which  that  unity  was 
broken  up,  either  took  the  names  of  the  patriarchs  who 
respectively  headed  them,  or  at  a  later  time  reflected 
their  own  names  back  upon  their  founders.  In  some 
cases  the  names  thus  given,  remain  with  little  change 
to  the  present.  Asshur  is  still  known  in  history  as 
Assyria  ;  the  country  chosen  by  Canaan  and  his  follow- 
ers long  retained  his  name,  or  that  which  he  derived 
from  it,  and  the  founder  of  Egypt  was  remem- 
bered only  by  that  under  which  his  country  rose  to 
fame. 

The  dispersion  was  occasioned  as  well  as  attended 
by  a  growing  diversity  of  languages.  Unity  of  pur- 
pose was  thereby  broken  up,  and  people  grouped  them- 
selves into  parties,  according  as  they  imderstood  one 


n. THE    DISPERSIOIT.  4:9 

another  most  readily.  In  the  first  embarrassment  and 
alarm  created  by  diverging  languages,  men  could  not 
conceive  of  the  devices,  which  since  have  been  adopted 
for  obviating  the  difficulty.  They  could  see  in  it  only 
the  purpose  of  an  angry  God  to  separate  them  and 
break  up  their  common  designs.  Under  the  impulse 
of  that  mysterious  dread,  most  of  them  withdrew  from 
the  place  marked  by  divine  wrath,  and  that  in  differ- 
ent directions,  grouping  themselves  according  to  their 
dialects.  Some,  in  pursuit  of  arable  lands,  followed  the 
rivers  into  northern  Assyria,  Mesopotamia  and  Ar- 
menia ;  others,  seeking  pasture  for  their  cattle,  spread 
more  extensively  over  the  country  eastward  and  west- 
ward, into  Persia  and  Media,  and  central  Asia  on  one 
hand,  and  into  Syria  and  Arabia,  on  the  other,  while 
vift-ious  groups  pursued  the  coasts  of  the  adjoining  seas. 
As  to  the  three  great  branches  of  mankind  and  the  line 
of  their  dispersion,  the  meaning  of  the  sacred  writer  is 
put  beyond  doubt  by  some  of  the  names.  That  the  Ham- 
itic  went  chiefly  to  the  south,  south-east,  and  south-west, 
appears  from  the  names  Cush  (Ethiopia)  Canaan,  and 
Mizraim  (Egypt),  being  classed  among  the  countries 
settled  by  sons  of  Ham.  And  that  the  writer  refers 
the  Japhetic  to  the  east,  north  and  north-west  is  equally 
plain  from  names  of  subsequent  historical  nations, 
Madai,  Gomer,  (Kumr,  otherwise,  Kimber),  Meshech, 
(Mosc)  and  Javan,  (Ion) ;  that  is,  the  people  among 
whom  the  Modes  were  anciently  the  most  conspicuous, 
the  group,  namely  on  the  plateau  of  Iran,  the  Celtic  ra- 
ces, among  whom  the  Kimbri  were  anciently  eponymous, 
the  people  who  gave  their  name  to  Moscovia,  and  Mos-. 
3 


50  COMPARATIVE   EELIGION. 

COW,  and  the  lonians,  by  which  name  the  Greeks  were 
known  in  the  east. 

The  two  larger  divisions  of  the  race  were  those  of 
Ham  and  Japhet.  The  former  retained  possession  of 
Babylonia,  occupied  Syria  and  Egypt,  with  the  inter- 
vening deserts  of  Arabia,  and  pushed  on  towards 
Ethiopia  and  the  interior  of  Africa.  The  latter  held 
the  broad  original  homestead  of  Iran,  and  extended 
gradually  northward  and  eastward,  on  one  hand  to- 
wards India  and  China,  and  on  the  other,  by  way  of 
the  northwest  into  Europe.  Comparatively  small,  the 
Semitic  branch  of  the  race  had  its  abode  chiefly  within 
the  settlements  of  Ham  and  regions  lying  between 
those  of  Ham  and  Japhet.  But  for  at  least  a  thousand 
years,  the  Shemites  were  of  little  note  among  the  powers 
of  the  time.  It  w^as  by  the  sons  of  Ham  that  the 
earliest  civilization  of  the  post-diluvian  world, — that 
which  had  its  origin  in  the  religion  of  ^N'oah — was 
conducted."^  The  family  of  Japhet  wandered  far  away, 
lost  many  of  the  features  of  civilized  life,  and  remained 
unrecorded  for  long  succeeding  centuries.  Many 
subdivisions  of  the  race  are  lost  to  the  eye  of  his- 
tory entirely ;  others  re-appear  at  a  great  distance  of 
time ;  but  whenever  an  historical  view  of  the  world, 
or  of  any  part  of  it,  is  obtained,  its  ethnological  charac- 
ter and  traditions  of  migration  correspond  in  the  main 
to  the  record  of  dispersion  in  the  tenth  chapter  of 

*  When  the  tenth  chapter  of  Genesis  was  written,  they  were 
the  most  important  branch  of  mankind.  The  author  of  that 
treatise  gives  as  much  room  to  his  account  of  their  settlements  as 
to  those  of  all  the  rest  of  mankind. 


II. — THE    DISPERSION.  61 

Genesis,  the  most  valuable  ethnological    treatise  of 
ancient  times. 

Such,  in  brief,  is  the  Hebrew  outline  of  primitive 
patriarchal  history.  iS"one  of  the  other  sacred  books 
brings  a  narrative  down  from  so  early  a  date. 

Of  ancient  testimonies,  next  after  the  Hebrew,  the 
historic  classic  of  China  is  the  clearest.  It  does  not 
extend  to  an  antiquity  equal  to  the  tenth  chapter  of 
Genesis  ;  but  there  is  about  it,  as  well  as  in  it,  some- 
thing which  challenges  comparison  at  this  point. 

According  to  the  Hebrew,  the  dispersion  of  man- 
kind took  place  immediately  after  the  diversity  in  lan- 
guages began.     Those  groups  which  remained  on  the 
plains  of  the  Tigris  and  Euphrates,  and  those  which 
removed  to  the  west  and  southwest,  formed  their  new 
languages  on  a  triliteral  basis.     The  colonies   which 
went  to  the  east,  and  afterwards  branched  off  in  va- 
rious directions   to  the  northeast  and  northwest,  are 
fouud  in  the  use  of  lano^ua^es  constructed  of  mono- 
syllables.     Many   of  them   became   polysyllabic  to  a 
high  degree,  and   differed  among  themselves  in  that 
some  combined  their  syllables  more  organically  than 
others,  but  whatever  the  structure,  loose  or  compact,  it 
is  built  up  entirely  with  monosyllables,  which  in  the 
meanings  they  retain  bear  more  or  less  distinct  traces 
of  having   once   been   in  use  as  separate  words.     It 
would  appear,  accordingly,  that  the  languages  of  that 
class  have  at  one  time  been  entirely  monosyllabic,  or 
that  they  have  grown  out  of  a  more  ancient  mono- 
syllabic tongue.     The  Chinese  retained,  at  the  date  of 
its  earliest  books,  as  it  still  retains,  a  monosyllabic  vo- 


52  COMPARATIVE   RELIGION. 

cabulary  and  grammar,  such,  as  must  have  belonged 
also  to  the  rest  of  the  eastward  lying  nations,  until 
after  the  process  of  confusion  had  made  some  progress 
among  them. 

If  soon  after  the  confusion  of  languages,  the  Chi- 
nese emigration  had  moved  off  on  their  long  march 
through  central  Asia,  they  would  have  carried  with 
them  a  language  certainly  nearer  the  purely  monosyl- 
labic than  many  of  their  eastern  neighbors  afterwards 
constructed,  in  fact,  a  language  just  such  as  they  have 
always  had  and  have  to  this  day. 

Secondly,  from  the  oldest  parts  of  the  historic 
classic  it  appears  that  the  Chinese  people  entered  the 
land  they  occupy  by  coming  from  the  northwest,  and 
descending  the  valley  of  the  Whang-ITo  ;  on  the  north 
side  of  which  their  strength  still  rested  until  a  date 
later  than  that  of  the  first  events  recounted  in  the  clas- 
sic. If  they  did  come  from  that  original  home  of  na- 
tions speaking  languages  on  the  monosyllabic  basis, 
namely  the  hill  country  of  Western  Persia,  by  succes- 
sive removals  through  the  great  gateway  of  the  Oxus 
and  Jaxartes,  and  thence  across  the  central  plateau  of 
Asia,  their  entrance  into  China  would  have  been  by 
the  route  on  which  they  actually  first  appear  in  that 
land.  There  the  Chinese  people,  to  whom  the  clas- 
sics belong,  found  a  race  of  earlier  settlers  whose  lan- 
guage, if  not  the  same,  was  of  the  same  structure. 
For  that  people  subsequently  blended  with  the  Chi- 
nese, without  in  the  least  degree  altering  the  monosyl- 
labic structure  of  their  lanoruaore. 

Thirdly,  the  patriarchal  government  and  style  of 


II. THE   DISPERSION.  63 

worship  are  as  like  those  recorded  in  the  eleventh  and 
some  of  the  succeeding  chapters  of  Genesis,  as  if  they 
had  both  sprung  from  a  common  origin,  at  a'  very  near 
remove.  The  ancient  religion  of  China,  as  it  appears 
in  the  earlier  parts  of  the  Shoo-King,  was  of  the  same 
type  with  that  observed  among  the  descendants  of 
Noah  on  the  banks  of  the  Euphrates ;  but  has  no  trace 
of  acquaintance  with  the  call  of  Abraham,  nor  of  the 
type  of  language  which  by  that  latter  date  had  arisen 
in  Western  Asia.  There  is  reasonable  probability 
that  the  Chinese  were  among  the  earliest  to  set  out 
from  the  original  community  of  the  whole,  carrying 
with  them  the  Noachic  style  of  worship,  of  govern- 
ment, and  of  instruction,  and  a  language  very  near  to 
the  original  type  of  human  speech  among  the  eastward 
emio^ratino^  tribes. 

Of  the  Aryan  race  in  the  earlier  time,  when  they 
all  lived  on  the  plateau  of  Iran,  we  have  no  history,  no 
literature,  but  in  the  languages  spoken  by  their  de- 
scendants there  have  been  discovered  monuments 
more  enduring  and  more  reliable  than  those  inscribed 
upon  granite.  Among  many  other  things  touchiug 
their  way  of  life,  arts  and  occupations,  we  learn  that 
''  they  worshipped  the  heaven  and  the  earth,  the  sun, 
fire,  water,  wind  ;  but  there  are  also  plain  traces  of 
an  earlier  monotheism,  from  which  this  nature-wor- 
yhip  proceeded.'' 

If  the  comparative  tables  in  Bunsen's  fifth  volume  of 
Egypt's  place  in  general  history  are  correct,  and  one 
third  of  the  old  Egyptian  words  in  Coptic  literature 
are  Semitic,  and  a  tenth  part  Indo-European,  that  is 


54  COMPARATIVE   RELIGION. 

Aryan,  there  is  a  probability  that  the  Egyptian  people 
who  were  Hamites,  had  continued  to  be  members  of 
the  one  community  in  which  the  Semitic,  Hamitic  and 
Aryan  still  lived  in  each  other's  neighborhood,  for  some 
time  after  the  division  of  lana^uac^es  beoran. 

We  have  no  knowledge  of  Greece  at  so  early  a 
date.  But  her  language  is  Aryan,  and  her  religion, 
when  it  does  appear,  consists  of  elements  both  Aryan 
and  Egyptian. 


III. 

NOACniC  TYPE  OF  WORSHIP. 


"With  a  full  knowledge  of  the  foregoing  religion  did 
the  sons  of  l^oah  begin  the  new  history  of  the  world. 
So  much  was  implied  in  the  terms  of  the  covenant 
then  made.  In  as  far  as  they  were  pious  men,  they 
shunned  the  vices,  to  the  sight  or  knowledge  of 
which  they  had  been  accustomed  ;  but  all  the  elements 
of  social  culture,  with  which  they  began  the  new 
world  they  of  course  brought  with  them  from  the  old. 

In  terms  of  the  Hebrew  scriptures  the  period  which 
falls  under  the  covenant  with  Noah  was  marked  by 
certain  features  belonging  to  all  nations  from  China  to 
Egypt,  as  far  as  we  know  about  them.  Its  religious 
services  were  sacrifice  and  prayer,  observed  in  the  ut- 
most simplicity.  The  duty  of  conducting  the  religious 
exercises  rested  with  the  head  of  the  family,  the  chief 
of  the  tribe,  or  the  king  of  the  nation  ;  and  the  same 
person  received  the  expression  of  the  divine  will  and 


III. NOACHIC  TYPE  OF  WOKSHIP.         55 

made  it  known  to  others.  He  was  at  once  the  priest, 
the  prophet  and  the  ruler  of  his  people.  On  the  basis 
of  monotheism  it  presents  everywhere  a  more  or  less 
advanced  belief  that  God  exists  in  many  persons.  It 
had  some  variation  of  meaning,  no  doubt,  to  different 
minds,  but  in  all  its  principal  elements  the  same  wor- 
ship was  observed  in  the  same  way,  addressed  to  the 
same  object,  and  mediately  to  some  of  the  same  divine 
persons,  and  by  men  of  the  same  rank  in  society, 
among  the  Chinese  while  yet  on  the  upper  Whang- 
Ho ;  among  the  Aryan  race  before  they  had  separated 
or  sent  out  their  European  or  Indian  colonies,  among 
the  herdsmen  of  Mesopotamia  and  Canaan,  among  the 
farmers  of  Shinar  and  Egypt,  and  among  the  trades- 
men and  merchants  of  Sidon.  It  is  the  patriarchal 
style  of  religion  and  culture  as  it  is  presented  by  the 
Hebrew  scriptures  in  the  family  of  Xoah. 

The  subsequent  course  of  ancient  religious  history 
divides  itself  into  three  periods :  first,  that  of  which 
we  are  now  speaking,  under  the  covenant  with  Koah, 
marked  everywhere  by  such  features  as  in  Genesis 
are  assigned  to  the  Noachic  society  and  religion.  In 
Hebrew  history  this  period  is  subdivided  by  the  call 
of  Abraham,  with  whom  a  new  and  special  covenant 
is  made,  forming  the  starting  point  of  Hebrew  history 
proper. 

The  second  period  is  characterized  by  the  develop- 
ment of  the  patriarchal  worship  into  a  legal  ritual, 
and  more  definitely  marked  by  the  uprising  in  certain 
quarters  of  reformers  whose  aim  was  to  reclaim  religion 
from  its  increasino^  errors  and  brino-  men  back  to  more 


&6  COMPAEATITE   RELIGION. 

intimate  communion  with  God.  "Without  being  able 
to  assign  a  precise  date  to  that  reformation,  it  may  be 
enough  to  say  that  it  occurred  somewhere  about  fifteen 
hundred  years  before  Christ. 

The  third  period  commenced  in  Western  Asia  in 
the  downfall  of  the  Hamitic  and  Semitic  monarchies 
and  the  rise  of  the  Japhetic,  and  in  China  and  India 
with  great  religious  revolutions  not  less  momentous. 

As  far  as  patriarchal  history  is  the  history  of  the 
human  race,  the  Hebrew  narrative  pursues  it  no  fur- 
ther than  the  dispersion.  Its  proper  subject  being 
the  history  of  the  promise,  and  the  progi'essive  unfold- 
ing of  the  promise,  it  abandons  everything  w^hich  be- 
comes disconnected  with  that  line  of  progress.  Main- 
taining its  own  connection  by  a  genealogical  list,  it 
passes  rapidly  over  a  long  series  of  ages,  to  dwell  fully 
upon  the  family  to  which  the  next  revelation  of  prom- 
ise is  made.  Hebrew  history  furnishes  in  the  main 
the  best  guide  to  universal  history  and  chronology, 
but  only  incidentally.  In  its  genealogies,  not  chronol 
ogy,  but  connection  of  family  descent  is  the  object 
in  view  :  and  when  events  in  the  history  of  the  prom- 
ise do  not  require  it,  nothing  is  said  of  the  state  of 
the  world.  During  those  periods  when  error  reigned 
to  such  an  extent  as  to  almost  extinguish  purity  of  wor- 
ship, Hebrew  narrative  is  silent,  and  satisfies  its  own 
conditions  in  simply  keeping  up  the  connection  by  a 
list  of  the  more  important  names  in  the  ancestry  of  him 
in  whom  the  next  stage  of  its  progress  0|>ens.  Thus, 
from  Seth  to  Xoah,  the  first  great  declension  ;  from 
the  dispersion  to  Abraham,  the  declension  under  the 


ni. XOACHIC  TYPE  OF  WOESHIP.         57 

Noachic  covenant ;  from  Joseph  to  Moses,  that  under 
the  Abrahamic,  and  from  Malachi  to  Christ,  the  depth 
of  declension  under  the  Mosaic,  are  all  gaps  in  the  his- 
tory-, bridged  over  by  their  respective  genealogical  lists  ; 
the  lists  regularly  standing  at  the  head  of  the  succeed- 
ing epoch  of  revelation  and  revival  of  promise.  Every 
people  which  alienated  itself  from  the  interests  of  that 
promise  was  dropped  from  the  record.  The  family 
of  Cain,  after  Lamech,  the  descendants  of  Ishmael,  and 
of  Abraham's  sons  by  Keturah,  the  ten  tribes  when 
they  had  become  irretrievably  corrupt,  and  the  cap- 
tives of  Judah,  who  preferred  a  heathen  prosperity  to  a 
restoration  of  their  nationality  and  the  hope  of  its 
promise,  all  disappear  from  the  narrative,  which  fol- 
lows faithfully  and  safely  the  footsteps  of  its  own  inva- 
riable theme. 

I^atural  knowledge  Hebrew  scripture  leaves  to  be 
acquired  by  natural  means.  Addressing  itself  to  the 
common  understanding  of  men  in  the  common  diction 
of  men,  it  never  turns  aside  from  its  subject  into  either 
antiquarian  or  scientific  digression. 
3* 


CHAPTER  III. 

INNOVATION. 

I. 

POWER  OF  EXTERNAL  NATURE  OVER  MAN. 

The  first  dispensation  of  Divine  mercj,  after  the 
flood,  was  committed  to  all  mankind.  In  the  order  of 
nature,  one  can  see  no  reason  why  it  should  not  have 
been  preserved  in  its  integrity  among  the  Aryan  na- 
tions and  the  Chinese,  as  well  as  among  the  people  of 
Palestine.  As  matter  of  fact,  we  have  testimony  that 
it  did  maintain  its  identity,  in  all  those  quarters,  up  to 
the  verge  of  the  earliest  heathen  scriptures.  That 
testimony  is  the  scriptures  themselves.  The  truth  of 
the  Hebrew  statement  is  abundantly  sustained  by  the 
type  of  religion,  which  those  ancient  books  present  by 
the  more  or  less  advanced  innovations  upon  it,  and  in 
the  nature  of  these  changes. 

Innovation  made  its  way  among  all,  but  among 
some  with  greater  rapidity,  and  to  greater  length  than 
among  others.  About  the  time  of  Abraham,  all  na- 
tions of  whom  we  read  had,  without  altering  the  type 
of  religion,  introduced  more  or  less  variation  upon  it, 
not  in  the  way  of  diminishing  ceremonial,  but  of  add- 
ing. At  the  nearest  remove  were  the  nations  of 
Canaan  and  the  Chinese  ;  further  off  were  the  Aryans, 


I. POWER    OF    EXTERNAL    NATURE    OVER    MAN.       59 

especially  the  Hindus ;  and  most  advanced  were  the 
Egyptians  and  Babylonians. 

Debasement  of  the  primitive  idea  of  God  was  first 
brought  about  by  the  disposition  of  man  to  yield  to  the 
influences  of  nature  upon  him,  and  to  pay  extravagant 
honors  to  the  memory  of  the  great  and  powerful  of  his 
own  kind.  The  most  generally  pervading,  and  con- 
tinually present  was  the  former ;  the  latter  gradually 
increased  in  process  of  time. 

Before  man  had  become  sensible  of  his  own  control 
over  much  of  the  material  world,  its  effect  upon  his 
imagination,  and  consequently  u]3on  his  style  of  life, 
must  have  added  largely  to  the  bounds  of  its  necessary 
dominion  over  him.  Everything,  as  it  still  is  to  child- 
hood, was  wonderful,  the  working  of  the  presence  of  a 
hidden  intelligence.  Life  and  death,  vegetation  and 
decay,  day  and  night,  mountains,  rivers,  groves,  and 
the  vast  and  ever  restless  sea,  the  moon,  the  stars,  and 
above  all,  the  great  and  glorious  sun,  rising  every 
morning  from  beneath  the  earth  like  the  conflagration 
of  a  world,  and  spreading  day  around  him,  in  his  career 
through  the  sky,  until  he  went  down  in  the  blaze  of  a 
splendor  like  that  in  which  he  rose,  inspiring  life  by 
his  presence  and  seeming  half  to  withdraw  it  at  his  de- 
parture, aff'ected  the  early  ages  of  mankind  with  amaze- 
ment and  admiration.  And  flre,  in  its  miraculous 
springing  into  intense  and  resplendent  existence  and 
destructive  activity  from  apparent  nothing,  and  its 
equally  wonderful  vanishing,  when  its  food  was  de- 
voured, appeared  to  them  like  a  visitor  from  an  unseen 
world.     It  impressed  them  with  gratitude  by  the  com- 


60  COMPARATIVE    KELIGION, 

fort  it  conferred;  in  the  absence  of  the  sun,  bv  its  pow- 
er to  soften  the  hardest  metal,  and  become  their  ser- 
vant in  the  arts ;  and  \Yith  terror,  bj  its  desolating  and 
maniac  fury,  when  transcending  their  control,  it 
avenged  itself  of  the  servitude.  So  natural  must  it 
have  been  for  unscientific  man  to  fall  into  tlie  worship 
of  such  objects,  that  nothing  but  the  actual  theophany 
of  a  spiritual  Creator,  to  w^hom  all  belonged,  as  the 
workmanship  of  his  own  hands,  would  seem  to  have 
been  able  to  lift  the  adoration  of  man  above  the  won- 
ders of  the  world  in  which  he  was  placed.  And  if  we 
find,  as  we  do,  that  many  centuries  after  the  flood 
some  still  worshipped  the  Creator  in  truth,  we  may  in- 
fer that  primitive  revelation  had  been  very  deeply  im- 
pressed upon  their  faith,  and  that  they  had  been  quite 
as  tenacious  of  it  as  later  generations  proved  to  be  of 
the  Gospel  of  Jesus.  But  notwithstanding  every  pre- 
caution, it  necessarily  occurred  that  the  language  in 
which  man  spoke  of  God  w^as  largely  drawn  from  im- 
agery of  the  natural  world.  And,  from  the  very  lack 
of  other  words,  such  figures  retained  their  place  as  ex- 
pressing simple  ideas  in  his  speech. 


II. 

INCIPIENT  MYTHOLOGY. 


Of  all  natural  objects,  the  earliest  to  be  accepted, 
and  the  most  extensively  used  to  express  the  concep- 
tion of  Divine  glory  was  the  Sun.  Into  that  practice 
all  the  ancient  historical  nations  of  the  Orient  seem  to 


II. INCIPIENT    MYTHOLOGY.  61 

have  fallen,  earlier  or  later,  for  a  longer  or  a  shorter 
time.  ■  So  prevalent  was  the  practice  in  the  second 
millennium  before  Christ  that  all  the  education  and 
national  institutions  of  the  Jews,  expressly  designed  to 
counteract  it,  were  only  partially  successful. 

Such  a  figurative  representation  of  God  once 
adopted,  the  course  of  degeneracy  was  inevitable,  when 
men  were  left  to  follow  their  natural  bent.  The  sym- 
bol, in  the  course  of  time,  took  the  place  of  the  thing 
signified  and  became  God  in  the  belief  of  the  common 
worshipper. 

That  last  step  when  firmly  taken,  rendered  inevi- 
table in  the  progress  of  thought,  the  conception  of  a 
duality  of  eternal  powers,  or  a  plurality  of  subordi- 
nate deities.  The  sun  is  not  always  in  the  heavens. 
He  divides  the  time  with  darkness.  And  the  associa- 
tion of  darkness  with  evil,  is  as  natural  to  the  mind  of 
man  as  that  of  light  with  good.  Thus  the  doctrine 
of  a  kingdom  of  light  and  a  kingdom  of  darkness,  be- 
ing respectively  also  those  of  good  and  evil,  took  its 
place  in  the  theology  of  some  countries.  ■  Others  went 
further  and  to  the  sun  added  the  moon  and  stars,  or 
some  of  the  stars,  as  inferior  gods,  ruling  the  heaven 
during  his  absence,  and  conceiving  of  the  moon  as 
feminine.  Thus  the  ancient  Syrians  had  their  king 
and  queen  of  heaven  and  the  Greeks  their  Helius  and 
Selene. 

It  was  entirely  in  accordance  with  this  turn  of 
mind  to  add  also  certain  objects  upon  earth,  as  repre- 
senting the  Deity  there.  Of  all  things  upon  earth  the 
most  wonderful,  most  like  the  work  of  a  present  crea- 


62  COMPARATIVE   RELIGION. 

tor  were  fire,  generation,  and  vegetable  growth :  and 
symbols  were  chosen  accordingly. 

As  to  hero  worship,  it  does  not  appear  that  men 
were,  in  the  days  of  ancient  simplicity,  deilied  during 
their  life-time.  Only  when  great  benefits  were 
thought  to  have  accrued  from  their  labors  or  their 
wisdom,  and  a  long  lapse  of  years  had  removed  their 
weaknesses  and  errors  from  view,  could  men  be  so  ele- 
vated in  the  opinions  of  their  fellow-men.  The  ser- 
vile adulation,  which  in  long  subsequent  ages  could 
confer  apotheosis  npon  a  living  monarch,  belongs  to  an 
entirely  different  category.  The  proto-patriarchs, 
heads  of  the  great  branches  of  the  race,  were  the  first 
to  enjoy  that  questionable  honor,  whereby  their  his- 
torical identity  was  merged  in  mythological  fable. 
For  many  ages  honored  as  the  founders  of  their  re- 
spective ethnic  groups,  as  their  actual  place  in  tradition 
became  less  clearly  nnderstood,  and  the  ideas  of  Deity 
more  mixed  with  those  of  its  created  representatives, 
they  were  gradually  assigned  to  a  place  among  objects 
of  worship.  Thus  Ham,  Phut,  Japhet  and  Asshur,  in 
after  times,  were  almost  entirely  lost  sight  of  in  the 
array  of  divine  attributes  ascribed  to  them  by  their 
respective  descendants.  Deification  of  men  was  not  a 
large  element  of  ancient  polytheism,  and  the  belief 
that  it  was  such  belongs  to  a  date  when^  mythology 
was  much  degraded.  In  the  Oriental  world  the  great- 
est of  the  gods  were  throughout  the  whole  of  what  we 
have  defined  as  the  ancient  period,  taken  from  the 
great  objects  of  nature  ;  but  latterly  disguised  by  com- 
bination with  meaner  things. 


II. INCIPIENT    MYTHOLOGY.  63 

In  some  cases  hero  worship  inerged  in  nature  wor- 
ship. While  the  name  of  the  hero  was  retained,  the 
symbols  were  natural  objects,  and  his  attributes  were 
drawn  from  nature.  Asshur  the  proto-patriarch  of 
Assyria,  was  regarded  in  that  country  with  the  highest 
religious  veneration,  but  his  common  symbol  was  the 
circle,  or  sign  of  the  sun. 

In  this  process,  the  earlier  part  of  the  transition 
from  pure  monotheism  is  marked  by  bold  figurative 
language  touching  objects  of  nature ;  much  of  it  not 
more  than  a  vivid  poetic  imagination  might  indulge 
in  without  blame,  but  also  sometimes  carrying  the  per- 
fionitication  so  far  as  to  amount  to  idolatry ;  the  two 
being  often  so  combined  in  the  same  production,  that 
it  is  difficult  to  say  which  was  uppermost  in  the  poet's 
thought. 

To  this  first  stage  many  of  the  early  hymns  of  the 
Yeda  belong.  Others  present  the  features  of  a  more 
matured  mythology.  The  latter  stage  is  that  which 
appears  on  the  monuments  of  Nineveh,  with  the 
addition  of  an  array  of  subordinate  mythological  be- 
ings. The  oldest  monuments  of  Egypt  testify  to  a 
still  further  progress  in  the  same  march  of  idolatry. 
And  the  ancient  Chinese  classic  identifies  the  one  only 
God,  whom  it  recognizes,  with  the  heaven  in  which 
he  was  thought  to  dwell. 

Civilization  has  its  effect  upon  the  degree  of  faith 
in  a  creed,  but  is  no  security  for  truth  in  its  doctrines, 
or  for  purity  in  its  practice.  The  noblest  religion  has 
been  found  in  a  nomadic  family,  and  the  basest  super- 
stition established  bv  law  in  the  seats  of  fashionable 


64  COMPAKATIYE   RELIGION. 

culture.  Herdsmen  of  Mesopotamia  and  of  Iran  wor- 
ship the  unseen  God  with  sacrifice  and  song  and 
praj^or,  the  learned  Chaldeans  seek  him  through  im- 
ages and  multiplication  of  rites,  while  the  boasted 
wisdom  of  Egypt  sinks  the  lowest  into  a  degrading 
polytheism.  And  yet  the  history  of  religion  is  bound 
up  in  the  heart  of  the  best  society.  The  history  of 
the  best  religion  is  the  history  of  the  highest  and 
truest  civilization. 

The  settlers  on  the  Nile,  those  in  Syria,  on  the 
Euphrates  and  Tigris,  and  in  China,  the  herdsmen  of 
Arabia  and  of  Iran,  all  alike  at  one  time,  adored  one 
God,  whom  they  believed  to  be  resident  in  heaven, 
and  thence  to  exercise  his  sovereignty  over  all.  But 
the  Aryan  branch  contemplated  him  as  manifesting 
himself  in  nature,  and  described  natural  objects  as 
present  Deity ;  the  Chinese  thought  of  him  as  a  pater- 
nal power  in  heaven,  and  associated  his  worship  with 
the  duty  of  veneration  for  parents;  while  the  nations 
of  western  civilization  conceived  of  deity  as  embodied 
in  human  nature,  and  through  human  nature  as  ex- 
tending to  the  rest  of  the  animate  and  to  the  inani- 
mate creation.  The  original  error  of  the  Aryan  was 
almost  pure  nature  worship ;  of  the  Chinese,  an  idol- 
atrous veneration  tending  to  worship  of  ancestors,  not 
without  some  elements  of  nature  worship ;  while  in 
the  west  of  Asia  it  was  the  tendency  to  pay  divine 
honors  to  the  proto-patriarchs,  and  to  ascribe  to  them 
as  gods,  all  the  various  operations  of  nature.  The 
Aryan  finding  God  everywhere  in  the  natural  world, 
imperceptibly  merged   into  a  pantheism  which  in  its 


II. INCIPIENT   MYTHOLOGY.  65 

early  history  is  hardly  distinguishable  from  the  doc- 
trine of  divine  omnipresence,  and  is  the  fountain  of 
much  fascinating  poetry ;  the  Chinese  sank  into  a 
prosaic  worship  of  their  deceased  parents,  and  the 
identification  of  God  with  the  visible  heaven,  while 
the  Egyptian  instituted  a  process  of  religious  thought 
which,  from  blending  the  divine  with  the  human,  and 
holding  to  the  community  of  human  souls  with  the 
brute,  led  down  not  only  to  polytheism,  but  also  di- 
rectly to  the  basest  idolatry. 

In  the  history  of  Greek  religion  there  are  several 
stages.  The  earliest  on  record  was  a  pure  nature  wor- 
ship, in  which  the  divine  beings  were  all  symbolical 
of  things  in  nature;  and  their  actions  were  simple  al- 
legory. Thus,  Chaos  and  I^iglit  were  half  personifica- 
tions of  the  confusion  and  darkness,  in  which  it  was 
believed  that  the  materials  of  the  universe  lay  before  the 
earth  came  into  shape.  Such  also  were  Heaven,  Earth, 
Erebus,  Love,  JEther,  Day,  Sky,  Mountains,  Sea, 
Ocean,  Helius  (the  Sun),  Selene  (the  Moon),  Aurora 
(the  dawn),  and  their  offspring,  streams,  woods,  sea- 
sons and  various  products  of  the  soil.  In  that  stage, 
the  mythology  of  Greece  was  of  the  same  class  with 
that  of  the  Hindu,  in  the  Kig-Yeda.  Its  gods  were 
the  same,  and  some  of  the  names  were  identical. 
Duiing  their  long  migration  from  the  home  of  their 
Aryan  forefathers,  the  Hellenic  people  had  retained  at 
least  the  substance  of  their  Aryan  religion.  Some- 
thing had  been  added,  and  something  had  been  lost, 
before  they  settled  on  the  shores  of  the  ^gean  ;  but 
the  system  was  still  the  same,  and  tradition,  as  late  as 


66  COMPARATIVE    KELTGION. 

the  time  of  Hesiod,  retained  the  true  Yedic  pantheon, 
with  little  change,  except  in  some  of  the  names. 
Yaruna  and  Onranus  are  identical,  so  Eos  and  Ushas 
differ  little  in  sound,  and  nothing  in  meaning,  the  su- 
preme name  Djaus  is  one  with  Zeus,  and  the  compound 
Dyaus-Pitar  with  Zeus-pater,  the  Latin  Jupiter.  And 
in  both  systems  alike  it  is  clear  that  powers  of  nature 
are  regarded  as  manifestations  of  divine  attributes ;  that 
in  or  behind  all  natural  things  resides  the  efficiency  of 
godhead. 


III. 

EITUALISM. 

The  figurative  language  used  of  God  and  the  sym- 
bols of  his  attributes,  in  process  of  time,  took  the  place 
of  their  pro])er  meaning  in  the  minds  of  worshippers. 
Sacrifice  became  a  ceremonial  effectual  in  itself,  and 
prayer  and  praise,  acts  of  piety,  esteemed  as  good 
works,  acceptable  with  God,  and  making  the  offerer 
acceptable,  if  rightly  performed.  Accordingly,  the  ut- 
most importance  came  to  attach  to  rightly  composed 
prayer,  and  to  the  right  pronunciation  of  every  word 
of  the  prayers,  which  had  been  accepted  as  the  best 
for  each  occasion,  to  the  right  attitudes  of  body,  the 
right  kind  of  offering,  and  the  right  juncture  of  time, 
until  everything  became  fixed  in  a  sacred  and  immov- 
able formula,  in  regard  to  which  the  slightest  mistake 
might  be  fatal  to  the  whole  service. 

The  regularly  ordained  formalities  of  the  liturgical 


m. RITUALISM.  67 

Yedas,  compared  witli  the  simpler  family  sacrifices  of 
some  of  the  ancient  hymns,  will  mark  a  step  in  that  pro- 
gress :  and  still  more  fully  the  informal  sacrifices  in  the 
open  air  observed  by  Abraham  and  by  Jacob,  as  com- 
pared with  the  elaborately  prescribed  ceremonial  of  a 
later  period,  in  both  Canaanite  and  Hebrew  history. 
The  same  kind  of  progress  will  be  perceived  upon 
comparing  the  religious  services,  mentioned  in  the 
early  part  of  the  Shoo-king,  with  the  subsequent  state 
ceremonial ;  or  the  simple  out-door  service  of  an  an- 
cient Greek  chief  with  the  sacerdotal  ceremonies  after- 
wards indispensable  at  a  Greek  temple. 

Ritual  precision  multiplied  the  duties  of  worship 
by  conferring  vital  importance  upon  every  particular. 
Such  carefully  composed  prayer,  and  adoration,  whether 
committed  to  writing  or  to  memory,  laid  the  founda- 
tion of  a  sacred  literature.  The  worshipper  who  felt 
himself  unequal  to  the  task  of  making  his  prayers,  and 
performing  the  ceremonies  of  worship,  as  the  ritual  de- 
manded, was  constrained  to  employ  the  services  of  one 
better  instructed  than  himself.  And  such  were  really  the 
circumstances  in  which  many  of  the  Eig-Yeda  hymns 
were  composed,  and  which  gave  rise  to  the  fact  that, 
in  most  cases,  the  oldest  scriptures  of  a  nation,  were 
prayer-hymns.  A  person  eminently  gifted  in  prepar- 
ing such,  had  many  applications.  In  some  cases  that 
gift  was  continued  from  father  to  son,  or  to  grandson ; 
thus  giving  rise  to  the  idea  of  a  prophetic  class  of 
persons  peculiarly  near  to  God,  and  enjoying  access  to 
his  favor,  and  to  a  knowledge  of  his  will. 

In  course  of  the  same  progress,  a  sacerdotal  class 


68  COMPARATIVE   RELIGION . 

became  necessary,  a  body  of  men  who  were  accurately 
versed  in  every  punctilio  of  the  service,  and  could 
perform  every  ceremony  in  its  proper  place  and  way, 
and  recite  the  words  aright.  Accordingly  as  all  the 
older  scriptures  are  simply  devotional,  or  historical 
so  the  next  oldest  are  ceremonial.  Thus  the  Yajur- 
Yeda  and  Sama-A^eda  as  compared  with  the  Rig-Yeda ; 
the  Yasna  and  Yispered  as  compared  with  the  Gathas ; 
the  Shoo-king  as  compared  with  the  Le-Ke,  the  book 
of  Genesis,  as  compared  with  Leviticus.  And  with 
the  growth  of  a  sacrificial  liturgy,  a  sacerdotal  class 
became  indispensable. 

In  the  more  remote  antiquity  there  were  no  tem- 
ples. Men,  who  believed  in  God,  believed  in  his  pres- 
ence everywhere,  offered  their  worship  at  their  own 
residences,  and  created  their  altars  on  the  open  ground, 
or  on  a  journey,  wherever  they  happened  to  spend  the 
night.  An  increasing  sense  of  being  under  the  wrath 
of  God,  and  of  distance  from  God,  an  impression  that 
earth  and  time,  as  connected  with  man,  are  unholy, 
in  course  of  time,  wrought  the  belief  that  God  will  not 
come  near  to  listen  to  the  solicitations  of  man,  except 
in  times  set  apart  as  holy,  and  upon  consecrated  ground. 
An  area  designated  by  some  consecrating  ceremonies, 
constituted  the  first  temple.  It  was  merely  a  sacred 
spot  in  the  field,  and  in  the  air  about  it.  To  surround 
that  spot  with  a  cord,  or  some  other  visible  boundary, 
then  to  erect  a  tent  within  its  limits  for  convenience 
of  the  person  conducting  the  worship,  were  historical 
steps  in  the  history.  Thus  the  Hebrew  patriarchs 
built  altars  at  various  places,  but  we  nowhere  read  of 


III. ^RITUALISM.  69 

them  consecrating  temples  of  any  kind.  Temples  first 
come  before  the  eje  of  history  in  heathen  not  Hebrew 
records,  among  the  monuments  of  Egypt  and  Assyria. 
Men  who  walked  with  God  everywhere  as  did  Abra- 
ham, and  received  manifestations  of  his  presence  by 
ministry  of  angels,  and  visions  of  the  night,  w^ere  not 
likely  to  be  the  first  to  conceive  of  that  compromise 
with  a  distant  Deity,  which  is  the  idea  of  the  temple. 
The  same  feeling  which  led  to  the  multiplication 
of  gods  from  the  symbols  of  divine  attributes,  suggest- 
ed the  propriety  of  sacrificing  difierent  animals  to  those 
diflferent  gods,  according  to  their  respective  characters  ; 
and,  in  the  next  place,  to  look  upon  the  victims  them- 
selves as  sacred,  and  entitled  to  share  in  the  divine 
honors.  The  bull  and  the  horse  were  in  several  coun- 
tries held  sacred  to  the  sun  ;  the  sacrifice  of  the  latter 
was  the  highest  of  all  solemnities  ;  but  that  of  the 
former  was  the  most  commonly  ofiered.  As  the  sun- 
god  was  the  chief  object  of  worship,  so  the  ox  became 
in  all  countries,  from  China  to  Ethiopia,  the  most 
sacred  of  animals  in  himself,  a  symbol  of  Deity,  and  in 
some  places  an  object  of  adoration. 


CHAPTEE  TV. 

FUETHEE  PROGRESS    OF   ETHNIC  RELIGIONS. 

I. 

IN    CHINA. 

When  the  black-haired  people  first  wended  their 
wa}^  down  the  valley  of  the  Whang-Ho,  they  brought 
with  them  a  religion  and  customs  remarkably  similar 
to  those  presented  in  the  book  of  Genesis.  That 
religion,  as  it  appears  in  their  own  most  ancient  litera- 
ture, taught  belief  in  the  God  of  heaven,  whose  wor- 
ship, in  prayer  and  sacrifice,  was  elevating  and  puri- 
fying to  the  afiections.  And  those  who  observed  it 
best  were  the  wisest  and  the  best  of  men.  It  was 
higher  than  mere  morality,  but  comprehended  good 
morals,  as  holiness  comprehends  righteousness.  Ques- 
tion may  be  raised  about  the  coloring  or  details  of  the 
earliest  parts  of  the  historic  classic,  which  treat  of  the 
reigns  of  Yaou  and  Shun,  but  not  of  the  principal 
facts  ;  to  which  head  the  type  of  their  religion  belongs. 
The  identity  of  that  religion,  in  its  obvious  features, 
with  that  of  the  Hebrew  patriarchs,  goes  far  to  estab- 
lish the  correspondent  antiquity  of  both. 

Eeligious  history  in  China  from  that  period  down 
to  Confucius  exhibits  fewer  chano;es  than  the  corre- 
spending  history  in  western   Asia,   within  the   same 


I. EELIGIOUS    PROGRESS    IN    CHINA.  71 

time ;  and  jet  the  changes  which  are  recorded  mani- 
fest the  same  general  tendency  of  mind.  The  decline 
which  occurred  in  and  under  the  Hea  dynasty,  who 
were  the  successors  of  King  Yu,  about  2180  B.  C,  was 
in  practical  morals  and  neglect  of  religion,  rather  than 
in  perversion  of  doctrine  or  observance.  And  yet 
such  iniquity  in  high  places,  and  so  long  continued 
through  several  reigns,  at  different  periods,  during 
the  more  than  four  hundred  years  of  that  dynasty 
which  succeeded  its  second  King,  could  not  fail  to 
work  an  injurious  effect  upon  the  people.  And  reli- 
gion must  have  suffered  in  the  corruption  of  morals. 
Such  is  the  evil  distinctly  implied  in  the  Song  of  the 
Five  Sons,  already  in  the  first  of  those  wicked  reigns. 

"  There   was  the  prince  of  T'aou  and  T'ang, 

Who  possessed  this  country  of  K'e, 

Now  we  have  fallen  from  his  ways. 

And  thrown  into  confusion  his  rules  and  laws." 

Again  in  the  same  song  of  lamentation  : 

"  Brightly  intelligent  was  our  ancestor. 

Sovereign  of  the  myriad  states. 

He  had  canons,  he  had  rules. 

Which  he  transmitted  to  his  posterity. 

The  standard  stone,  and  the  equalizing  quarter 

Were  in  the  imperial  treasuries. 

Wildly  have  we  dropt  the  clue  he  gave  us, 

Overturning  our  family  and  extinguishing  our  sacrifices." 

The  same  thing  is  implied  in  Chung-hwuy's  an- 
nouncement to  the  reformer  T'ang  by  whom  the  de- 
generated dynasty  was  overthrown,  when  he  says  that 
*'  Heaven  gives  birth  to  the  people  with  such  desires 


72  CX)MPARATIVE   RELIGION. 

that  without  a  ruler  thej  must  fall  into  all  disorders," 
and  that  "  the  sovereign  of  Hea  had  his  virtue  all-ob- 
scuredj  and  the  people  were  as  if  thej  were  fallen  amid 
mire  and  charcoal,"  And  3^et  it  appears  that  part  of 
the  people  disap23roved  of  the  disorders  proceeding 
from  the  example  of  their  monarch.  In  the  Hebrew 
narrative  most  mention  is  made  of  the  effect  of  error 
upon  the  state  oi  religious  observances  ;  in  the  Chi- 
nese upon  practical  morals.  But  the  two  are  always  in 
their  very  nature  connected.  Throughout  the  Chinese 
historical  classic  the  observances  of  worship  occupy 
small  space,  as  compared  with  moral  rectitude.  Keli- 
gion  is  generally  adduced  as  it  shows  itself  in  the  con- 
duct of  men.  "  He  who  would  take  care  for  his  end, 
must  be  attentive  to  his  beginning.  There  is  estab- 
lishment for  the  observers  of  propriety,  and  overthrow 
for  the  blinded,  and  wantonly  indifferent.  To  revere 
and  honor  the  way  of  Heaven  is  the  way  ever  to  pre- 
serve the  favoring  regard  of  Heaven." 

Nevertheless,  the  work  of  the  reforming  monarch, 
T'ang,  who  overthrew  the  corrupt  Hea  dynasty,  and 
set  in  operation  the  means  of  rectifying  the  many 
abuses  it  had  introduced,  was  one  that  concerned  re- 
ligion as  well  as  moral  conduct  and  wise  government. 
The  sacrifices  of  the  national  religion  had  been  neg- 
lected, and  disregard  of  the  will  of  God  had  entered 
largely  into  the  conduct  of  men.  There  is  no  sign 
that  the  style  of  the  national  religion  was  altered,  but 
the  observation  of  it  was  neglected. 

There  was  an  ancient  Chinese  mytholog}^  but  it 
existed  subordinate  to  their  monotheistic  faith,  as  the 


I. ^RELIGIOUS    PROGRESS    IN   CHINA.  73 

Hebrew  belief  in  angels  might  have  co-existed  with 
the  worship  of  Jehovah,  had  sacrifice  to  them  been 
practiced.  It  occupies  but  small  place  in  the  historic 
classic.  The  worship  of  ancestors  is  of  more  common 
occurrence,  belonged  from  the  earliest  date  to  the  na- 
tional religion,  and  was  the  style  of  error  into  which 
it  was  most  prone  to  decline. 

The  emblematic  figures  of  the  ancients,  the  sun, 
the  moon,  the  stars,  the  mountains,  the  dragon,  and 
the  flowery  fowl,  which  are  depicted  on  the  upper 
garment,  the  temple-cup,  the  aquatic  grass,  the  flames, 
the  grains  of  rice,  the  hatchet,  and  the  symbol  of  dis- 
tinction, which  are  embroidered  on  the  lower  garment, 
which  with  the  five  colors,  were  painted  or  embroider- 
ed on  the  sacrificial  robes  of  the  emperor,  had  no 
doubt  symbolical  meanings  in  relation  to  religion ;  but 
they  were  also  signs  of  rank,  and  were  not  used  as  ob- 
jects to  be  worshipped. 

The  directions  concerning  music,  given  in  the 
fourth  of  the  books  of  Yu,  had  probably  something  to 
do  with  temple  service,  but  they  are  mentioned  in  re- 
lation to  the  civil  government.  The  disorder,  into 
which  these  observances  fell,  belongs  probably  to  the 
common  head  of  neglected  religion,  with  which  the 
later  kings  of  the  Hea  dynasty  are  charged. 

Whatever  may  have  been  the  nature  and  extent  of 
religious  declension  in  that  time,  the  work  of  the  re- 
former T'ang  was  as  much  a  religious  as  a  political  re- 
formation. It  consisted  first  of  all  in  restoring  the  spir- 
itual and  moral  service  of  the  one  God ;  secondly,  in 
setting  the  example  of  supreme  and  humble  regard 
4 


74  COMPARATIVE    KELIGIOX. 

to  his  will  in  all  things ;  and  thirdly  in  punishing  the 
evil-doers.  Outside  of  that  revealed  promise  which 
brought  its  believers  peculiarly  near  to  God,  I  find  no 
more  spiritually-minded  man  than  the  emperor  T'ang. 
The  thoroughness  of  his  reformation  he  signified  by 
calling  it  a  new  life,  as  expressed  in  the  Announce- 
ment, "Throughout  all  the  states  that  enter  on  a  new 
life  under  me,  do  not,  ye  princes,  follow  lawless  ways ; 
make  no  approach  to  insolent  dissoluteness ;  let  every 
one  observe  to  keep  his  statutes  : — that  so  we  may  re- 
ceive the  favor  of  Heaven."  The  expression  ''new 
life,'*  has  not  of  course,  its  christian  meaning,  but  it 
does  imply  that  under  the  rule  of  T'ang  the  states 
were  to  begin  anew,  on  a  higher  and  purer  principle 
of  conduct.  He  speaks  of  the  people  as  in  their  dis- 
tress, under  previous  bad  government,  appealing  to  the 
spirits  of  heaven  and  earth ;  but  he  reverences  only 
one  God,  and  makes  no  mention  of  any  other. 

It  appears,  however,  that  the  worship  of  ancestors 
and  of  the  spirits  had  been  continued  under  him,  and 
with  greater  regularity  than  before.  For  it  is  men- 
tioned by  the  wisest  and  best  man  of  the  time,  who 
set  up  and  sustained  his  successor  on  the  throne  that 
he  "  kept  his  eye  contiuually  upon  the  bright  require- 
ments of  Heaven,  and  served  and  obeyed  the  spirits  of 
heaven  and  earth,  of  the  land  and  the  grain,  and  of  the 
ancestral  temple — all  with  reverent  veneration." 

The  reign  of  T'ang  fell  between  the  years  1Y65 
and  1752  B.  C.  by  the  common  Chinese  chronology, 
or  between  1557  and  1514  B.  C.  by  the  shorter  canon. 


II. KELIGIOUS   PROGRESS    IN    EGYPT.  76 

II. 

PROGRESS    OF    RELIGION    IN    EGYPT. 

In  Egypt,  the  religion  which  covered  and  controlled 
all  things,  bore  clear  marks  of  the  early  ]N'oachic  reve- 
lation, possessing  all  the  great  features  of  it  without 
its  purity.  By  the  time  of  Abraham  it  had  been 
expanded  by  the  multiplication  of  symbols  and  ceremo- 
nies into  a  complicated  system  of  idolatry,  which  still 
contained  within  its  bosom  the  original  elements  of 
the  patriarchal  system. 

'^  To  the  common  mind  their  religion  seems  to  have 
become  entirely  material  and  sensual.  Rigid  conser- 
vatism never  retains  anything  but  forms,  unless  accom- 
panied by  careful  instruction,  and  some  freedom  of 
discussion ;  and  the  more  severely  its  rules  are  enforced, 
the  more  shallow  it  becomes.  Spiritual  meaning  evap- 
orates insensibly  from  the  best  definitions  of  a  creed, 
unless  their  discussion  is  ever  renewed,  and  their 
exposition  insisted  on.  Much  more  are  rites  and  cere- 
monies, formal  and  sensible  things,  prone  to  separate 
from  the  meaning  which  they  were  designed  to  em- 
body. "When  men  attempt  to  retain  all  by  mere  force 
of  repetition,  they  will  soon  be  left  with  nothing  but 
a  body  from  which  the  soul  has  departed.  A  vague 
but  oppressive  sense  of  spiritual  domination  pervad- 
ing the  whole  life  of  society  appears  to  have  been  the 
only  apprehension  retained  by  the  Egyptian  people 
of  the  unseen  God.  The  order  of  their  government 
was  to  them  like  that  of  nature,  mysterious,  sacred, 


76  COMPAIiATIVE    RELIGION. 

and  unchangeable  in  itself.  Its  autliori tj,  whoever 
might  be  the  reigning  king,  was  recognized  as  divine. 
Their  religion  was  a  dark  and  awful  mjsterj ;  but  all 
that  was  addressed  by  it  to  their  understanding  were 
myths,  and  rites  and  ceremonies,  and  material  sym- 
bols, and  temples  of  oppressive  gloom;  and  their 
notions  of  the  future  existence  of  the  soul  were  con- 
founded with  preservation  of  the  body,  and  their  ideas 
of  a  place  of  blessedness  with  sepulture  in  a  securely 
protected  tomb. 

But  in  these  very  ritual  observances  which  could 
not  have  been  introduced  without  a  consistent  meaning, 
we  perceive  that  their  religion  had  at  one  time  taught, 
and  to  the  better  instructed  perhaps  still  taught,  the 
doctrine  of  one  everywhere  present  and  Almighty  God, 
with  some  conception  of  revelation  by  theophany,  and 
of  a  Providence  overruling  all  things,  defending  the 
faithful  worshipper,  and  inflicting  punishment  upon 
the  wicked.  It  had  taught  the  immortality  of  the 
human  soul,  and  the  resurrection  of  the  body ;  that 
there  is  a  future  judgment  with  rewards  and  punish- 
ments beyond  the  grave ;  that  an  atonement  is  needed 
for  the  sinner,  and  intercession  with  God  by  a  supe- 
rior being  or  beings.  Their  worship  consisted  of  ofler- 
ings  upon  an  altar,  of  fruit,  flowers,  bread,  animals 
slain,  libations  of  oil,  wine,  or  some  other  liquid,  of 
incense  burning,  of  prayer,  and  ascriptions  of  praise 
and  of  adoration.  Those  services  were  connected 
with  solemn  processions,  and  music,  and  the  persons 
who  ministered  in  them  were  robed  in  a  peculiar 
manner,  and  the  king,  the  head  of  the  whole  system, 


II. RELIGIOUS    PKOGRESS    IN    EGYPT.  77 

when  in  his  place  at  the  altar,  appeared  also  clothed  in 
the  sacerdotal  vestments. 

In  the  time  of  the  twelfth  dynasty  of  their  kings, 
more  than  two  thousand  years  before  Christ,  and  be- 
fore the  days  of  Abraham,  the  unity  of  God  was  still 
i\ot  so  far  obscured  but  that  each  district  or  great  city 
of  Egypt  had  only  its  one  great  object  of  worship. 
The  union  of  all  the  districts  into  one  kingdom  con- 
stituted the  primitive  polytheism  of  Egypt.  Thus 
Phtah  was  God  as  worshipped  in  Memphis,  Ka,  in  the 
holy  city  of  On ;  Khem  in  Khenmiis  in  the  Thebaid, 
and  Amun  in  the  city  of  Thebes.  Phtah  was  re- 
garded as  the  creator  of  the  world ;  Khem  as  the 
father  of  men  ;  Pa  was  the  God  of  light,  represented 
by  the  sun,  and  Amun,  as  the  almighty  and  inscruta- 
ble power  of  Deity.  The  commonest  symbol  of  God 
in  all  parts  of  Egypt  was  the  sun.  It  seems  to  have 
been  conceived  of  as  a  sign  of  the  governing  power 
of  God.  The  kings  of  Egypt  always  bore  an  image 
of  the  sun's  disk  upon  their  seal ;  and 'the  name  of  the 
sun-god,  Pa,  entered  as  an  element  into  their  royal 
title,  and  they  were  all  sons  of  Pa. 

Amun  was  at  first  the  name  of  God  as  worshipped 
in  Thebes  ;  but  after  the  Theban  dynasty  secured  the 
throne  of  Egypt,  he  was  accepted  over  the  whole  land, 
in  addition  to  the  local  deities.  For  the  smaller  cities 
had  also  their  respective  gods,  who  did  not  so  much 
give  place  to  those  of  the  capital  cities  and  of  a  more 
general  veneration,  as  partake  with  them,  or  become 
subjoined  to  them,  under  the  idea  of  unity  in  plurality. 

Among  the  gods  of  inferior  rank  the  most  gener- 


T8  COMPARATIVE   RELIGION. 

ally  worshipped  were  Hes  and  Hesiri,  rendered  into 
Greek  and  Latin  as  Isis  and  Osiris.  All  these  were 
variously  combined  in  later  Egyptian  mythology,  and 
many  additions  were  made  to  their  number.  But 
they  had  all  assumed  their  distinctive  features  befoi-e 
the  time  of  Abraham.  Amun  appears  in  the  simpli- 
city of  his  name  upon  the  royal  seals  of  the  twelfth 
dynasty.  The  obelisk  of  On,  a  work  of  the  twelfth 
dynasty,  is  sacred  to  Ka ;  the  original  Khem  appears  ' 
upon  some  of  the  oldest  monuments  in  Egypt ;  and 
Phtah,  as  the  god  of  Memphis,  the  old  capital,  neces- 
sarily enjoyed  the  suj^erior  honor  at  an  earlier  date 
than  Amun. 

Perhaps  enough  has  now  been  said  to  serve  the 
end  in  view,  namely,  to  show  that  there  was  a  pro- 
gress in  the  multiplication  of  gods  and  accumulation 
of  rites  in  Egypt,  and  that  Egypt,  as  early  as  two 
thousand  years  before  Christ,  and  in  the  prime  of  her 
civilization,  although  retaining  the  fundamental  ele- 
ments of  an  earlier  and  better  religion,  had  already 
sunk  them  deeply  in  the  corruptions  of  idolatry. 
The  testimony  is  depicted  by  men  of  that  day  upon 
monuments  erected  by  themselves  to  their  own  honor.  ^ 


m. 

A  MONOTHEISTIC  REVIVAL. 

It  was  at  that  stage  of  innovation  that  the  earliest 
recorded  testimony  against  idolatry  and  polytheism  was 
borne.     ISTot  a  revolution,  in  the  first  instance,   but 


in. A    MONOTHEISTIC    REVIVAL.  79 

simply  the  truthful  return  of  one  man,  with  his  family, 
to  the  original  creed  and  observances,  with  an  earnest 
obedience  to  wliat  he  learned  of  the  will  of  God,  it 
was  quiet,  unostentatious,  and  entirely  void  of  proselyt- 
ism.  Abraham  recommended  his  faith  to  tlie  world 
only  by  good  works,  by  the  generous  courtesy  which 
attracted  the  respect  of  his  neighbors,  and  by  the  cor- 
responding spirit  which  prevailed  in  his  numerous 
household. 

At  this  point  the  Hebrew  narrative  is  possessed  of 
a  special  importance  in  relation  not  more  to  the  subse- 
quent history  of  the  Hebrews  themselves  than  to  that 
of  the  powerful  nations,  whose  religion  is  inherited 
from  them.  In  giving  the  narrative  of  the  Plebrew 
scriptures  substantially  as  they  stand,  I  assume 
nothing  for  them  which  I  do  not  for  the  other  script- 
ures, my  purpose  in  botli  being  to  take  their  own 
account  of  themselves  and  of  their  religion. 

The  narrative  of  Genesis  which,  after  the  record 
of  dispersion,  had  contracted  to  the  dimensions  of  a 
genealogical  list,  now  expands  into  a  broader  channel, 
not  of  general  history,  as  before,  but  of  biography.  A 
new  dispensation  was  opening.  Both  the  two  pre- 
.ceding  had  been  addressed  to  all  mankind.  This  was 
on  a  new  plan.  It  was  not  made  with  all  men,  nor 
committed  equally  to  all ;  but  with  one  man  and  his 
chosen  descendants,  for  himself  and  his  posterity,  with 
a  view  to  all  of  the  race,  who  therein  should  repose 
their  hopes  of  reconciliation  with  God.  Moreover,  it 
was  not  made  with  one  of  the  Hamitic  race.  They 
had  already  enjoyed  every  facility.     The  best  of  the 


80  COMPAEATIYE    KELTGION. 

world,  and  the  best  means  of  maintaining  and  defend- 
ing the  religion  of  the  world  in  its  purity,  had  be^n 
committed  to  their  hands,  and  they  were  proving  un- 
faithful to  the  trust.  It  was  made  with  one  man  in 
the  descent  from  Shera,  who  was  called  away  from  the 
connection  of  kindred,  and  set  apart  to  be  the  father 
of  a  new  nation.  And  from  the  rest  of  his  descend- 
ants that  future  nation  was  to  be  separated  by  the 
singular  birth  of  its  founder.  It  was  to  spring  from 
that  son  alone  who  was  given  according  to  promise — 
born  out  of  the  course  of  nature — tliat  the  hand  of  God 
might  not  fail  to  be  seen  in  it. 

This  new  covenant  was  a  renovation  of  the  patri- 
archal, as  it  was  to  operate  upon  a  patriarchal  state  of 
society.  But  it  contained  some  new  elements  of  reve- 
lation ;  chiefly  the  prominence  given  to  faith  in  the 
promise  to  Abraham  ;  and  the  greater  definiteness  of 
that  promise,  in  proffering  special  divine  favor  to  the  line 
of  his  descendants  through  Isaac,  and  ultimately 
through  them  great  blessedness  to  all  the  families  of 
the  earth.  In  the  first  instance  the  example  of  Abra- 
ham and  his  household  appears  as  a  reformation  ad- 
dressed to  the  then  existing  world,  before  society  and 
religion  had  become  so  corrupt  as  to  render  a  peaceful 
reformation  hopeless.  It  proposed  no  revolution  in 
society,  government,  or  worship ;  only  the  recognition  of 
the  one  God  in  purity,  as  still  known  to  the  patriarchal 
princes  then  living,  and  as  now  made  known  in  clear- 
er revelation  to  Abraham.  It  testified  against  poly- 
theism and  idolatry,  while  true  monotheism  still  had 
some  hold  upon  the  convictions  of  the  better  and  wiser 


m. A    MONOTHEISTIC    REVIVAL.  81 

of  men.     It  stood  alone  in   its  time.     IS'otliing  of  a 
like  nature  occurred  elsewhere. 

Melchizedek,  the  king  of  righteousness,  is  mention- 
ed at  this  time  as  a  priest-king  under  the  Noachic  re- 
ligion, who  observed  it  in  its  purity.  He  was  king  of 
Salem,  or  of  peace,  and  priest  of  the  Most  High  God, 
and  evinced  his  character  as  a  prophet  in  recognizing 
tlie  Hebrew  patriarch  as  the  special  servant  of  the 
Most  High  God.  His  meeting  with  Abraham  is  the 
most  interesting  fact  of  that  epoch,  as  touching  the 
juncture  of  the  two  economies.  Melchizedek  is  a 
true  representative  of  that  which  had  existed  from  the 
time  of  Koah;  Abraham  was  the  first  under  one  just 
opening.  Abraham  pays  tithes  to  a  legitimate  priest 
of  the  time.  Melchizedek  blesses  with  prophetic  fore- 
sight the  proto-patriarch  of  a  new  economy.  Melchiz- 
edek was  a  priest  not  by  descent  in  a  sacerdotal  tribe  ; 
but  because,  according  to  existing  institutions,  univer- 
sal in  the  world  of  his  time,  he  discharged  those  duties 
as  a  prince.  ]^o  mention  is  made  of  his  parentage  to 
show  his  right  to  exercise  the  office  of  priest.  His 
right  was  declared  in  the  mention  of  his  rank  as  king. 
But  he  was  distinguished  above  others  of  his  day  and 
neighborhood  in  being  priest  not  of  a  polytheism  nor  of 
an  idolatry,  nor  of  a  local  or  inferior  deity,  but  of  the 
Most  High  God.  So  far  then  he  is  a  testimony  that  among 
the  nations  of  Canaan  some  still  maintained  the  knowl- 
edge of  the  Most  High  God  in  its  grand  simplicity. 

The  economy  thus  introduced  received  more  light 
as  it  advanced,  and  before  its  close  we  might  record 
the  features  of  its  Abrahamic  type  as  follows  ; 
4* 


82  COMPAKATITE  RELIGION. 

First,  as  in  the  foregoing  and  co-existing  dispensa- 
tion, the  mode  of  revelation  is  by  theophanj.  The 
divine  will  was  manifested  in  the  method  of  calling 
Abraham  and  his  descendants  to  their  office ;  divine 
knowledge  in  the  revelations  committed  to  them,  and 
divine  power  by  miraculous  intervention  according  to 
promise.  Though  prophecies  were  sometimes  uttered, 
miracles  were  not  wrought  by  men,  but  by  the  imme- 
diate power  of  God. 

Second,  the  patriarchs  believed  God  to  be  one, 
all  powerful,  holy  and  just,  that  all  things  w^ere  crea- 
ted by  him  and  subject  to  him. 

Third,  that  man  created  holy,  had  fallen,  was  sinful, 
and  under  condemnation  ;  and  that  they  who  should 
obey  God,  by  faith  in  his  promise,  should  enjoy  his  favor. 

Fourth,  it  does  not  appear  in  Genesis  what  the  patri- 
archs knew,  if  they  knew  anything,  about  the  person- 
ality of  a  Saviour,  as  in  anyway  different  from  that 
of  the  God  w^hom  they  worshipped.  Christ  said  that 
Abraham  saw  his  day  and  w^as  glad ;  but  in  that  we 
cannot  with  certainty  understand  more  than  that 
Abraham  had  foresight  of  the  time  when  the  promised 
one  should  actually  appear ;  nor  is  it  clear  that  they 
knew  of  different  personalities  in  the  godhead  whom 
they  worshipped  ;  nor  of  the  resurrection-  of  the  body, 
of  the  doctrine  of  eternal  life,  or  of  a  state  of  blessed- 
ness beyond  the  grave. 

Fifth,  their  worship  consisted  in  prayer  and  sacri- 
fice. It  is  probable  that  they  kept  the  Sabbath  as  a 
day  of  rest ;  but  it  does  not  appear  that  they  had  any 
religious  exercises  set  apart  for  that  day. 


ni. A   MONOTHEISTIC    KEYIVAL.  83 

Sixth,  Xow,  for  the  first  time,  we  meet  with  cir- 
cumcision, as  a  sacrament  initiatory.  Such  could  not 
belong  to  the  foregoing  economy,  because  in  that  all 
persons  were  members  by  right  of  birth.  The  only 
sacrament  then  was  sacrifice.  When  the  condition  of 
faith  in  a  promise  to  a  particular  people  was  establish- 
ed, then  came  the  second  sacrament,  standing  at  the 
gate  of  the  new  economy. 

Seventh,  the  head  and  priest  of  the  family  or  tribe 
was  to  be,  not  as  formerly,  the  first  born  son  of  his 
father,  but  the  heir  of  the  promise :  Isaac,  not  Ish- 
mael ;  Jacob,  not  Esau. 

Eighth,  In  the  families  of  the  Hebrew  patriarchs, 
the  civilization  proper  to  nomadic  life  existed  in  its 
highest  excellence ;  and  yet  they  regarded  themselves 
as  only  in  a  transition  state,  and  always  looked  for- 
ward to  ultimate  settlement  of  their  posterity  in  the 
promised  land. 

Civilization,  even  in  the  midst  of  growing  heathen- 
ism, retained  enough  of  its  divine  origin  to  render 
valuable  service  to  the  new  economy.  The  father  of 
the  faithful  was  saved  from  contamination  of  increas- 
ing errors,  by  residence  in  a  country  where  they 
were  comparatively  few,  and  by  repeated  revelations 
and  promises.  So  his  family  until  they  were  fully 
indoctrinated  in  their  proper  mission  ;  but  before  they 
became  a  nation,  they  were  removed  into  Egypt,  to 
learn  all  that  existing  civilization  had  to  teach, 
which  was  needful  for  their  new  state  of  existence. 

In  its  initiatory  stage,  the  new  economy  took  that 
form  which  coincided  with  the  civil  order  and  struct- 


84  COMPAKATIYE    RELIGIOX. 

ure  of  society  in  that  time.  Accordingly,  although 
that  part  of  scripture  which  treats  of  it  becomes  bio- 
graphical, it  falls  in  with  the  advancing  current  of 
general  history. 


SEMITIC    MIGRATIONS. 

While  Egypt  was  yet  in  the  prime  of  her  early 
success,  under  the  princes  of  the  twelfth  dynasty, 
and  ere  the  nations  of  Canaan  had  reached  their  matu- 
rity, a  movement  of  the  Shemites  of  Mesopotamia 
and  of  Elam  began  to  set  in  tow^ards  the  West.  It 
was  an  impulse  of  migration  simultaneously  actuating 
all  those  branches  of  mankind  destined  to  become  the 
principal  leaders  of  the  world.  While  the  best  colo- 
nies of  Semitic  kindred  were  successively  advancing 
into  Syria  and  Palestine,  the  ruling  branches  of  the 
Aryan  stock  were  taking  possession  of  the  islands  and 
peninsulas  of  Greece,  and  crossing  the  Punjab  into 
India ;  and  the  Chinese,  after  a  longer  series  of  migra- 
tions, commenced  at  a  much  earlier  date,  were  ^estab- 
lishing  a  regular  government  on  the  Eastward  sloping 
plains  of  Asia.  All  were  taking  up  their  residence 
where  they  were  destinied  to  grow  into  power  and  do 
their  respective  work,  about  the  same  period,  namely, 
from  two  thousand  to  two  thousand  and  three  hundred 
years  before  Christ.  Meanwhile  the  Hamites  of  Baby- 
lon and  Egypt  were  steadily  educating  themselves 
in  that  culture  which  ultimately  was  to  carry  its  lessons 
out  after  the  pioneer  colonies,  and  become,  wherever 


n'. SEMITIC    MIGRATIONS.  85 

accepted,  the  spirit  of  progressive  civilization.  Earlier 
migrations  had  proceeded  in  all  those  directions,  as 
well  as  in  others,  but  this  period  is  marked  by  the 
earliest  recorded  movements  of  the  great  historical 
races  of  China,  India,  Syria,  Arabia,  and  Greece  into 
the  countries  they  were  afterwards  to  rule. 

The  king  of  Elam  carried  his  conquests  as  far  as 
Arabia  Peti-^ea  and  the  plain  of  Jordan.  Some  emigmnt 
companies  penetrated  to  Mount  Sinai  and  to  Egypt, 
some  in  the  capacity  of  merchants  and  artists,  but  more 
as  herdsmen.  From  the  hill  country  to  the  north  or 
northeast,  the  Chaldees  descended  upon  the  plains  of 
Babylon,  and  by  some  means  secured  to  themselves  the 
possession  of  that  primitive  scat  of  empire. 

Among  the  first  Semitic  migrations  was  that  of 
Abraham  and  Lot,  from  Ur  of  the  Chaldees  into  the 
country  of  southern  Palestine.  But  Terah,  the  lather 
of  Abraham,  was  also  on  his  way  westward  with  all  his 
family,  and  had  got  as  tar  as  Ilaran,  when  he  died. 
The  patriarchs  seem  to  have  attracted  but  little  atten- 
tion at  the  time.  Only  wealthy  herdsmen,  their  pres- 
ence in  Canaan  created  neither  animosity  nor  fear. 
And  yet  the  result  proved  that  they  constituted  by  far 
the  most  important  branch  of  the  Semitic  migration. 

The  earliest  seat  of  power  belonging  to  that  race, 
was  Elam.  But  of  its  history  little  is  known  save 
what  is  mentioned  of  its  monarch  Chedorlaomer  in  the 
book  of  Genesis.  It  was  originally  a  small  territory 
lying  east  of  the  Persian  gulf  and  lower  Euphrates. 
But  its  king  had  at  an  early  day  made  those  of  Shinar 
and  some  other  neighboring  countries  dependent  upon 


86  COMPARATIVE    RELIGION. 

liim,  or  so  allied  with  him  as  to  use  their  forces  for 
the  execution  of  his  designs.  With  their  aid  he  car- 
ried his  conquests  over  Northern  Arabia  to  the  val- 
leys of  Mount  Seir,  Moab,  and  the  plain  of  Jordan. 
Other  branches  of  the  race,  by  immigration  and  rapid 
increase  of  numbers,  prevailed  over  the  inhabitants  of 
Arabia,  and  reduced  the  Hamitic  states  on  the  bor- 
ders of  Canaan.  Their  immigration  into  Egypt,  in 
which  they  were  probably  associated  with  some  tribes 
of  Hamitic  blood,  belonged  to  the  same  ethnic  move- 
ment, and  was  made,  like  most  of  the  rest  of  it,  at  that 
period,  not  with  violence  but  by  the  gradual  progress 
of  a  nomadic  people  in  pursuit  of  broader  lands,  and 
richer  pastures,  combined,  in  some  instances,  with  the 
enterprise  of  commerce.  The  earlier  of  these  Semitic 
migraJ;ions  westward  fell  in  with  the  later  Hamitic, 
which  had  been  successively  pursuing  that  direction 
for  centuries. 

Upon  a  monument  of  the  twelfth  Egyptian  dy- 
nasty, a  small  colony  of  such  Oriental  immigrants  is 
presented  to  Pharaoh,  with  their  humble  petition  to 
be  allowed  to  reside  in  the  country.  Succeeding  colo- 
nies from  the  same  quarter,  and  perhaps  in  the  same 
peaceful  spirit,  continued  to  pour  into  Egypt,  age  after 
age,  until  in  the  end  of  the  fourteenth  dynasty,  they 
had  increased  to  such  a  degree,  and  secured  such  wealth 
and  influence,  as  to  raise  one  of  their  number  to  the 
throne.  That  power  they  held,  for  several  generations, 
over  all  Egypt,  and  at  least  in  the  lower  country, 
through  three  successive  dynasties,  covering  a  period 
of  more  than  five  hundred  years. 


IV. SEMITIC    MIGRATIONS.  87 

In  the  days  when  those  Shepherd  kings  were  at 
the  summit  of  their  power,  Abraham  came  down  into 
Egypt  from  Canaan,  where  he  had  bnt  recently  arrived 
from  Mesopotamia.  His  visit  was  confined  to  the 
eastern  border,  near  Zoan  (Tanis)  the  capital  of  the 
Shepherd  kings.  After  a  short  residence  there,  he 
returned  to  Canaan,  where  he  resided  until  his  death, 
about  one  hundred  years  later.  His  descendants  pro- 
ceeding from  Ishmael  and  the  sons  of  Keturah  spread 
themselves  abroad  to  the  eastward  and  southward, 
entering  upon  the  possession  of  Arabia,  while  their 
kinsmen,  descended  of  Lot,  seized  upon  the  hill  coun- 
try immediately  to  the  east  of  the  lower  valley  of  the 
Jordan.     His  son  Isaac  continued  to  reside  in  Canaan. 

Soon  after  Abraham's  return  from-Egypt^  he  and 
Lot  separated,  Lot  choosing  residence  in  Sodom.  Then 
followed  the  invasion  of  Chedorlaomer,  the  capture  of 
Lot,  and  his  rescue  by  Abraham  and  his  Canaanitish 
neighbors  ;  an  enterprise  which  gave  the  elder  pa- 
triarch great  favor  with  the  native  population.  Fif- 
teen or  sixteen  years  later  followed  the  catastrophe 
which  overthrew  the  cities  of  the  plain. 

About  two  hundred  years  after  Abraham's  visit  to 
Egypt,  Joseph  his  great  grandson  was  carried  thither 
as  a  slave,  to  rise  ultimately  by  a  singular  series  of 
events  to  the  mightiest  place  at  the  same  court  of 
Zoan.  He  was  soon  followed  by  his  father  and  breth- 
ren. And  for  all  the  time  that  the  Hebrews  were 
merely  a  kindred  of  tribes,  that  is  four  hundred  and 
thirty  years,  they  were  residents  of  the  land  of  Egypt. 


CHAPTEE    Y. 

GROWTH  OF   LEGALISM  UNTIL   THE    SECOND   MONOTHEISTIC 
KEFOKMATION. 

The  history  of  Israel  was  a  discipline  of  faith.  In 
the  Patriarchs  that  grace  was  implanted,  strengthened, 
and  directed  by  special  revelation,  and  successive  prom- 
ises of  things,  the  gift  of  which  was  long  delayed. 
That  discipline  appears  in  the  call  of  Abraham,  who  was 
to  go  out  from  his  father's  house,  not  knowing  whither 
he  went,  to  a  land  that  God  would  show  him,  with 
the  promise  of  great  favor  to  himself  and  his  posterity, 
then  in  delaying  the  fulfilment  of  the  promise  of  pos- 
terity until  by  the  course  of  nature,  it  could  no  longer 
be  expected ;  in  the  promise  to  Abraham  that  his  pos- 
terity should  possess  the  land  of  Canaan,  but  not  until  the 
lapse  of  many  centuries,  during  which  they  should  be 
oppressed,  in  a  land  which  was  not  theirs,  four  hun- 
dred years ;  in  the  command  to  sacrifice  the  heir  of 
the  promise,  upon  whom  all  the  hopes  of  the  elder  pa- 
triarch rested ;  in  the  fewness  of  the  promised  race  for 
two  hundred  years,  and  in  the  long  , residence,  and  lat- 
terly bondage,  in  Egypt. 

In  the  progressive  unfolding  of  the  plan  of  redemp- 
tion, each  new  act  sets  some  point  of  the  subject  in  a 
new  light,  fulfilling  something  in   the  past,  and  pre- 


GROWTH    OF   LEGALISM.  89 

senting  a  new  feature  for  the  exercise  of  faith,  while 
niakino-  clearer  somethino^  relatinu'  to  the  one  2:reat  ob- 
ject  of  faith,  the  promise  to  Abraham. 

There  is  a  comprehensive  sjmmetrj  in  Hebrew 
history.  Abraham  is  the  paternal  head  of  the  econo- 
my through  him  introduced.  As  Adam  was  the 
head  of  all  mankind  by  natural  generation,  and  their 
representative,  and  as  Noah  stood  to  the  new  world 
after  the  flood,  so  Abraham  stands  to  all  who  by  like 
faith,  shall  be  saved  through  the  revelation  made  to 
him  and  his  seed,  to  the  end  of  time.  Spiritually  he 
is  the  father  of  the  faithful ;  that  is,  of  all  who  through 
faith  in  the  promised  seed  of  Abraham  shall  be  bless- 
ed. In  this,  which  is  the  full  meaning  of  the  promise, 
the  descendants  of* Abraham  are  practically  innumera- 
ble. For  the  progress  of  that  faith  is  still  distinctly 
tending  towards  the  fulfilment  of  the  prophecy  that 
the  blessing  in  him  shall  extend  to  all  nations  of  the 
earth. 

Accordingly,  in  that  quarter,  however  delayed, 
there  is  a  progress  and  a  hope  of  something  better  to 
come.  In  the  other  great  religions  of  the  time,  we 
find  no  cheering  hope,  no  line  of  promise,  for  progress 
to  follow.  In  a  world  where  polytheism  and  the  rites 
of  idolatrous  worship  were  increasing  and  gradually 
solidifying  into  systems,  the  Hebrew  family  alone  pre- 
sents an  example  of  pure  family  worship  of  the  one 
God  of  heaven  and  earth,  without  division  of  divine 
honors  with  any  other  being. 


90  COMPARATIVE    RELIGION. 

II. 

HEBREWS    m   EGYPT. 

The  residence  of  the  Hebrews  in  Egypt  was  chiefly 
if  not  solely,  in  the  lower  country  :  and  the  cities  in 
which  they  beheld  the  regal  splendor  were  Zoan, 
Memphis  and  On.  Some  of  them  continued  to  follow 
their  pastoral  occupations,  as  long  as  they  enjoyed  free- 
dom of  choice,  and  as  the  district  in  which  they  dwelt 
bordered  upon  the  desert,  they  could  freely  extend  the 
pasturing  of  their  herds  as  far  in  that  direction  as  any 
of  them  might  be  disposed  to  tempt  the  danger.  In- 
stances are  mentioned  of  some  of  the  Ephraimites  com- 
ing into  conflict  with  the  Philistines  of  Gath,  during 
the  lifetime  of  their  father  Ephraim. 

The  land  which  the  Egyptians,  those  most  favored 
sons  of  Ham,  had  chosen  for  their  residence,  and 
which  was  so  long  and  so  intimately  associated  with  the 
history  of  the  Abrahamic  people,  is  a  beautiful,  well- 
watered  plain,  stretching  through  the  desert  at  the  en- 
trance of  Africa,  just  beyond  the  isthmus  which  unites 
that  continent  to  Asia.  Lying  along  the  Nile,  it  ex- 
tended from  the  sea,  on  the  south,  as  far  north  as 
navigation  was  unimpeded.  The  rapids  of  Syene 
were  certainly  not  reached  by  the  early  settlers  ;  but 
when  settlement  did  reach  that  point,  it  was  as- 
sumed as  the  southern  limit  of  Egypt.  In  other 
directions  the  boundaries  of  the  country  are  assigned 
by  nature,  and  its  arable  surface  is  still  more  narrowly 
confined  to  the  limits  of  irrigation  by  the  Nile.     For 


II. HEBREWS   IN    EGYPT.  91 

that  land  is  truly,  in  the  words  of  its  earliest  Greek 
historian,  the  gift  of  the  river.  Lying  under  a  burn- 
ing sun,  in  most  of  its  length  rarely  visited  by  a  show- 
er, it  is  rendered  habitable  only  by  the  regular  recur- 
rence of  the  overflowing  waters. 

It  was  called  Mizraim  by  the  Hebrews,  who  ap- 
plied the  same  name  to  a  son  of  Ham,  by  whom  the 
settlement  was  made ;  but  the  Egyptians  themselves 
preferred  the  name  of  their  more  ancient  forefather, 
and  called  their  country  Khemi,  or  the  land  of  Ham. 
Mizraim  is  a  dual  form,  apparently  referring  to  the 
twofold  division  of  Egypt,  and  made  from  a  singular, 
Miser,  which  is  actually  the  Arabic  name  for  that 
country.  Khem  has  also  a  local  etymology,  but  is 
determined  as  a. person  by  the  figures,  which  represent 
him  on  the  monuments. 

Another  primitive  colony  had  crossed  the  Nile 
valley  to  its  western  side,  before  the  sons  of  Mizraim 
arrived,  who  perhaps  drove  them  to  the  western 
side,  and  held  them  under  government.  An  at- 
tempt at  revolt  on  their  part  was  reduced  by  the  first 
king  of  the  third  Egyptian  dynasty.  On  that  side  of 
the  Nile,  at  the  oldest  seat  of  royalty,  arose  the  wor- 
ship of  a  god,  whose  name  in  Egyptian  spelling,  which 
omits  short  medial  vowels,  is  written  P.  h.  t.  The 
Greeks  in  adopting  it,  consistently  with  their  habits 
of  pronunciation,  wrote  Phta,  and  translated  by  He- 
phaistos.  Phta  was  the  first  king  and  first  god  of 
Egypt,  and  while  he  reigned  as  king  was  the  only 
god.  He  preceded  the  sun  as  the  object  of  worship, 
and  then  became  identified  with  him.     To  Phta  was 


92  COMPARATIVE    RELIGION. 

ascribed  the  honor  of  being  the  creator,  and  the  god 
of  fire,  and  the  sun-god  of  Memphis.  AUhough  pro- 
nounced Phtah  by  tlie  Greeks,  it  is  probable  that  tlie 
three  letters  P.  h.  t.  were  originally  Phut  in  the 
mouths  of  the  founders  of  Egypt.  If  the  sons  of  Phut 
were  the  first  to  enter  Egypt  by  the  Isthmus  of  Suez, 
and  were  soon  afterwards  constrained  to  cross  to  the 
western  side  of  the  Nile  by  the  succeeding  migration 
of  Mizraim,  and  there  building  their  city  and  temple, 
they  were  afterwards  followed  by  the  stronger  colony, 
and  consented  for  a  long  time  to  live  on  the  west  of 
the  river  together  with  them,  and  as  subject  to  their 
kings,  but  finally  in  the  beginning  of  the  third  dynas- 
ty, attempted  to  recover  their  independence,  and  were 
reduced  more  completely  than  before,  so  that  while 
some  of  the  Phutim  thereupon  retired  further  west- 
ward into  the  Oases  and  north  coast  of  Africa,  a  great 
number,  perhaps  the  greater  number,  of  the  inhabit- 
ants of  Memphis  consented  to  the  government  of  Miz- 
raite  kings,  and  were  allowed  to  remain  in  the  enjo}^- 
ment  of  their  religion,  and  that  in  course  of  time  they 
and  their  religion  were  comprehended  in  the  common 
mass  of  Egypt,  the  history  would  have  given  true 
occasion  to  all  that  we  know  of  the  case. 

On  the  list  of  those  gods  whom  the  Egyptians 
called  their  first  kings,  Phta  (or  Phut)  is  always  first. 
It  is  not  unlikely  that  the  legend  is  true  which  pre- 
sents certain  gods  as  the  first  kings  of  Egypt.  In 
other  words,  their  patriarchs,  according  to  the  custom 
of  the  time,  ruled  over  the  settlements  of  those  de- 
scended from  them,  both  as  kings  and  priests.     Their 


II. HEBREWS    IN    EGYPT.  93 

really  long  lives  laid  a  foundation  for  the  extravagant 
chronology  subsequently  assigned  to  them,  and  later 
veneration  paid  them  divine  honors.  Accordingly 
not  only  is  their  common  country  named  from  Ham, 
the  protopatriarch  of  their  race,  but  Ham  is  also 
one  of  the  great  gods  of  their  pantheon,  whose  chief 
attribute  is  that  of  father  of  mankind. 

Early  Egyptian  history  is  arranged,  after  the  man- 
ner adopted    by  its  historian  Manetho,    according  to 
its  royal  dynasties.     His  list  of  the  dynasties  is  extant 
but  without  the  history  to  which  it  belonged.     Other 
royal  lists  are  partially  extant.     In  all  alike  the  earliest 
kings  are  gods  and  demigods,  who  all  terminate  their 
reign  by  death.     Of  human  dynasties  Manetho  counts 
thirtj^-one   until    the   Macedonian   conquest.     In   the 
course   of  these   thirty-one   dynasties,  there  are  four 
periods  of  eminent  distinction,  well  defined  and  largely 
illustrated  by  their  own  monuments  respectively.     Of 
the  first  three,  little  is  known  except  what   appears 
upon  the  lists.     The  first  period,  which  stands  forth 
boldly  in  a  record  of  its  own,  is  that  of  the  fourth  dy- 
nasty including  also  one  king  of  the  third  and  one  or 
two  of  the  fifth.     It  was  then  that  the  great  pyramids 
arose,  and  that  the  oldest  cavern  tombs  were  construct- 
ed in  the  cemetery  of  Memphis.     Inscriptions  on  those 
tombs  delineate  very   extensively  the   manners,    cus* 
toms  and  occupations   of  their  times.     But   no  dated 
are  given ;  and  the  length  of  the  period  they  cover 
can  therefore  be  judged  of  only  approximately  by  gen- 
ealogies, which  can  be  traced  on  them  to  some  length, 
and  by  comparison  with  the  numbers  on  the  lists  of 


94  COMPARATIVE    RELIGION. 

Manetlio.  It  could  not  be  a  brief  period  which  ex- 
ecuted so  many  monuments  of  such  magnitude,  and 
all  that  they  bear  witness  to.  Those  works  are  execu- 
ted in  the  perfection  of  Egj^tian  art.  They  bear  no 
record  of  war,  but  in  all  res^^ects  testify  to  a  state  of 
primal  prosperity  and  paace. 

After  the  earlier  kings  of  the  fifth  dynasty,  the 
monumental  testimony  is  comparatively  obscure  until 
the  end  of  the  eleventh.  It  seems  that  the  country 
was  divided  among  several  rival  dynasties,  in  different 
capitals,  at  war  with  one  another,  and  sometimes  one 
and  sometimes  another  being  superior.  In  the  end, 
the  royal  house  of  Thebes,  in  upper  Egypt,  prevailed, 
and  is  counted  the  eleventh  dynasty.  Their  success- 
ors, who  formed  the  twelfth,  established  and  held  do- 
minion over  the  whole  country  ;  and  Thebes  assumed 
that  place,  which  had  previously  belonged  to  Mem- 
phis. 

The  first  king  of  the  twelfth  dynasty  was  Sesorto- 
sen  I.,  whose  name  appears  upon  the  oldest  part  of 
the  temple  of  Karnak.  Five  kings  succeeded  him,  a 
second  Amunemah,  two  other  Sesortosens,  and  a  third 
and  fourth  Amunemah,  after  whom  the  dynasty  de- 
clined. The  Sesortosens  were  its  principal  heroes,  and 
Egypt's  first  great  military  leaders.  On  the  walls  of 
the  temple  of  Amun,  now  called  by  the  name  of  Kar- 
nak, they  inscribed  the  records  of  their  exploits.  'Nor 
had  they  neglected  the  arts  of  peace.  The  tomb  of 
an  officer  of  high  rank  under  Sesortosen  11. ,  still  re- 
mains at  Beni  Hassan,  to  bear  testimony  to  the  state 
of  national  prosperity,  and  the  standard  of  art  in  that 


II. HEBREWS    IN    EGYPT.  95 

reign.  Upon  it  and  adjoining  tombs  are  delineated 
almost  all  the  occupations  of  ordinary  life.  Other 
monuments  belonging  to  the  same  dynasty  are  quite 
numerous,  and  in  various  parts  of  Egypt,  from  the 
Delta  to  the  Southern  border,  as  well  as  in  Ethiopia 
and  the  desert  of  Sinai.  Dates  are  given,  and  events 
distinctly  assigned  to  the  year  of  the  king's  reign 
in  which  they  took  place.  Upon  the  decline  of  the 
twelfth  dynasty  and  the  feeble  rule  of  the  thirteenth 
and  fourteenth,  immigrants  from  the  east,  of  Semitic 
descent,  accumulated  to  such  a  number  that,  in  course 
of  time,  they  took  to  themselves  the  government 
of  the  country,  and  set  up  their  own  kings  in  Zoan. 
Of  that  period  the  monuments  are  scanty. 

In  the  end  of  a  usurpation,  prolonged  for  several 
hundred  years,  a  new  branch  of  the  Theban  royal 
family  obtained  the  ascendancy,  and  held  it  through 
two  dynasties,  counted  the  eighteenth  and  nineteenth, 
which  together  constitute  the  third  great  period  of 
Egyptian  history,  illustrated  chiefly  by  the  exploits  in 
war  and  peace  of  the  kings  bearing  the  names  of 
Thothmes,  in  the  eighteenth,  and  of  Kameses  in  the 
nineteenth  dynasties. 

Another  period  of  decline  ran  through  the  twenti- 
eth and  twenty-first  dynasties,  from  which  the  founder 
of  the  twenty-second  revived  the  monarchy.  That 
founder  was  the  Shishak  of  Hebrew  scripture,  who 
was  on  the  throne  at  the  accession  of  Rehoboam,  son 
of  Solomon,  to  the  throne  of  Judah,  in  or  about  the 
year  975  before  Christ.  Here  we  obtain  the  earliest 
positive  synchronism  with  Hebrew  History.     For  Shi- 


ye  COMPAKATIVE   RELIGION. 

sliak  is  the  first  Pharaoli  mentioned  in  the  Hebrew 
books  by  his  own  name.  And  the  identification  is 
confirmed  by  the  fact  that  his  invasion  of  Judea  re- 
corded in  the  first  book  of  Kings,  he  also  recorded 
upon  the  great  hall  in  tlie  temple  of  Karnak,  accom- 
panied by  his  own  name. 

By  counting  back  from  that  date,  with  the  imper- 
fect data  we  possess,  we  shall  find  that  the  nineteenth 
dynasty  must  have  begun  in  the  latter  part  of  the 
fourteenth  century  before  Christ,  and  the  eighteenth 
at  least  two  hundred  years  earlier.  Then  allowing 
five  hundred  years  for  the  period  of  divided  rule  and 
Semitic  occupation,  and  then  taking  in  the  twelfth 
dynasty  to  its  beginning,  we  shall  find  ourselves 
twenty-two  hundred  years  or  more  before  the  birth  of 
Christ.  In  ascending  further,  we  have  a  long  period 
of  scanty  records  to  pass  ere  reaching  the  era  of  the 
great  Pyramid-builders.  During  that  interval,  and 
beyond  it  no  monumental  dates  aid  the  steps  of  re- 
search ;  genealogical  facts  are  furnished  in  the  fourth 
dynasty ;  but  beyond  the  last  king  of  the  third  dy- 
nasty, there  are  no  contemporaneous  records,  and 
except  the  brief  and  unreliable  hints  in  the  lists,  really 
no  data  at  all. 

Although  far  from  able  to  assign  exact  dates  to  all 
these  epochs,  it  seems  most  probable  that  the  nine- 
teenth, twentieth  and  twenty-first  dynasties  fell  in  the 
time  of  the  Judges  and  united  Kingdom  of  Israel,  that 
the  wandering  in  the  desert  fell  in  the  early  part  of 
the  nineteenth,  that  the  Hebrews  went  out  of  Egypt 
in  the  eighteenth,  and  that  their  residence  there  com- 


n. HEBREWS   IN    EGYPT.  97 

menced  in  the  seventeenth  dynasty,  and  that  Abra- 
ham's visit  was  in  the  earlier  part  of  the  Shepherd 
rule.  Consequently,  the  part  of  Egyptian  history 
which  preceded  the  call  of  Abraham,  and  fell  under 
the  time  which  scripture  passes  over  in  a  genealogical 
list,  was  from  the  fifteenth  or  early  part  of  the  sixteenth 
dynasty  back  to  the  earliest  settlement  of  the  country. 
Within  that  period,  although  the  chronology  is  very 
defective,  the  degree  of  attainment  whicli  had  been 
made  in  the  arts  of  civilized  life,  is  vouched  for  abun- 
dantly by  a  great  variety  of  contemporaneous  testimo- 
nies. From  whicli  it  appears  that  although  manufac- 
tures and  commerce  flourished  among  those  early 
Egyptians,  the  foundation  of  their  national  wealth  was 
the  produce  of  the  farm.  Their  civilization  was  of  the 
kind  which  grows  up  naturally  upon  a  rich  soil  and 
by  a  navigable  river. 

In  their  government  the  civil  and  religious  ele- 
ments were  completely  blended.  The  source  of  au- 
thority over  the  Egyptian  mind  was  one.  The  king 
centred  all  in  himself.  He  was  not  a  priest  in  the 
sense  of  being  set  apart  specially  to  that  office ;  but  in 
his  capacity  as  king  he  exercised  sacerdotal  functions, 
as  the  chief  pontiff  of  his  people.  "  A  chief,  surround- 
ed by  a  numerous  priesthood,  governed  each  city  in 
Egypt,''  as  magistrates  subordinate  to  the  king,  who 
in  a  similar  manner  governed  the  whole  country. 
^'  They  all  alike  held  their  rank  by  hereditary  descent, 
and  their  power  by  the  force  of  opinion  founded  on 
religion."  Divine  right  transmitted  through  consecra- 
ted descent  was  the  recognized  claim  to  the  throne. 
5 


98  COMPAKATIVE   RELIGION. 

Popular  sovereignty  was  an  idea  foreign  to  all  the 
thoughts  of  an  Egyptian,  perhaps  never  occurred,  as 
an  original  conception,  to  any  descendant  of  Ham. 
Alike  in  Babel,  in  Canaan,  in  Ethiopia,  in  Arabia  and 
in  Egypt,  whenever  we  obtain  a  glimpse  of  their  gov- 
ernment, it  is  found  to  be  a  monarchy — a  sacerdotal 
monarchy,  the  true  development  of  the  patriarchal 
system.  In  Egypt,  where  most  fully  exhibited,  it  was 
at  once  sustained  and  regulated  by  a  sacerdotal  aristoc- 
racy, itself  regulated  by  pre-existing  institutions  re- 
garded with  the  profoundest  veneration.  And  it  is  a 
matter  worthy  of  far  more  consideration  than  is  com- 
monly given  to  it,  that  even  in  the  time  of  the  Hebrew 
patriarchs,  when  degeneracy  of  religion  had  already 
far  progressed,  a  genuine  fear  of  the  true  God  still  ex- 
isted in  some  of  those  priest-kings,  as  shown  in  the 
case  of  Abimelech  of  Gerar,  Melchizedek,  and  the  Pha- 
raoh of  Abraham's  visit  to  the  south.  It  was  in 
Egypt  that  this,  as  well  as  most  other  elements  of 
primitive  civilization,  reached  its  fullest  development. 
In  the  religion  of  the  Egyptians,  the  genuineness 
of  its  original  basis,  the  careful  instruction  of  the 
priesthood  therein,  and  the  unfeigned  faith  of  the 
people  in  what  their  mysteries  revealed  to  them,  se- 
cured the  permanence  of  all  institutions  founded  there- 
upon. In  one  sense,  all  Egypt  was  a  sacerdotal  sys- 
tem, inasmuch  as  all  its  institutions  proceeded  from 
and  were  controlled  by  the  sacred  statutes,  which  it  was 
impious  to  violate.  Most  probably  to  this  cause 
was  owing  the  long  duration  of  the  same  form  of 
government,  notwithstanding  the  changes  of  the  seat 


II. HEBREWS    IN    EGYPT.  99 

of  power,  and  the  conflicts  of  rival  dynasties.  The 
disposition  of  the  hierarchy  was  necessarily  conserva- 
tive of  interests  so  largely  if  not  completely  its  own. 
The  military  class  may  be  included  under  the  same 
head.  For  it  was,  in  a  very  practical  sense,  only  a 
priesthood  consecrated  to  defence  of  the  country  in 
war. 

Under  the  same  sacerdotal  principle,  and  falling  in 
with  the  habits  natural  to  the  land  on  which  they 
lived,  the  whole  population  was  grouped  into  orders 
for  the  effecting  of  given  ends.  And  thereby  those 
ends  were  achieved  with  a  completeness  and  power 
which  has  seldom  been  paralleled.  Hundreds  of  thou- 
sands laboring  all  their  lives,  and  for  long  successive 
generations,  upon  the  same  work,  and  all  submitting 
to  the  same  authority,  and  following  the  same  sacred 
models,  produced  external  results  of  a  magnitude  and 
uniformity  otherwise  unattainable.  Such  in  Egypt 
was  the  complete  organization  of  the  patriarchal  style 
of  government.  I^ations  to  whom  such  order  and 
subordination  of  ranks  is  unknown  look  upon  the  works 
effected  thereby  with  wonder. 

At  the  same  time,  original  enterprise  was  practi- 
cally discouraged,  and  the  steps  of  improvement  con- 
fined within  such  narrow  limits  that  their  advance  can 
scarcely  be  perceived  in  the  course  of  centuries.  Con- 
servatism was  the  spirit  of  the  nation,  and  manifested 
itself  in  all  institutions,  as  if  everything  had  been  re- 
vealed directly  from  on  high,  or  established  by  some 
primeval  authority,  which  it  would  have  been  sacrilege 
to  disobey.     Art,  as  well  as  the  occupations  of  Indus- 


100  COMPARATIVE   RELIGION. 

try,  belonged  to  hereditary  orders.  Possessing  many 
features  of  a  vast  socialistic  phalanx,  Egypt  aimed  at 
maintaining  the  well-being  of  all  her  people  by  repress- 
ing the  individuality  of  each,  and  merging  it  in  that 
of  a  caste,  or  rank. 

As  compared  with  itself  in  the  fourth  dynasty,  and 
later  in  the  twelfth,  Egyptian  religion,  in  the  eiglit- 
eenth  dynasty,  has  clearly  made  a  progress.  It  is  a 
progress  from  the  worship  of  a  few  gods  to  that  of  a 
greatly  increased  number  of  gods  ;  from  a  simpler  cer- 
emonial to  a  more  complex,  and  from  gods  with  simple 
names  to  gods  with  compound  names,  while  the  un- 
seen Grod  has  also  become  the  unknown.  The  Pha- 
raoh of  the  time  of  Abraham's  visit  reverently  recog- 
nizes the  God  whom  the  Patriarch  worships ;  the 
Pharaoh  of  the  exode  insolently  asks,  "  Who  is 
Jehovah  that  I  should  obey  him  ? " 

In  the  land  of  Egypt  the  sons  of  Israel  never  forgot 
that  they  were  a  separate  people.  We  have  no  account 
of  any  one  of  them  being  so  affected  by  the  favor  which 
they  experienced  at  first,  as  to  transfer  his  nationality. 
Awaiting  the  time  when  God  should  command  their 
return,  they  retained  their  own  tribal  government, 
whereby  they  were  gradually  prepared  to  assume  the 
form  of  a  nation,  their  own  manners  and  customs,  and 
the  use  among  themselves  of  the  dialect  of  Canaan ; 
and  the  embalmed  body  of  Joseph,  kept  by  his  own 
order,  to  be  carried  up  with  them  when  they  should 
return  to  the  promised  land,  was  a  constant  admonition, 
as  no  doubt  it  was  intended  to  be,  of  that  expected 
event. 


II. — HEBREWS    IN    EGYPT.  101 

As  the  families  of  Israel  increased  in  numbers,  they 
expanded  into  tribes,  and  out  of  the  increase  of  the 
■tribes  grew  a  subdivision  into  clans  (mishpahoth),  and 
out  of  these  the  still  smaller  division  into  houses, 
(battim),  or  houses  of  fathers,  and  the  next  was  that  of 
individual  men  with  their  wives  and  children.  Each 
tribe  had  its  proper  patriarchal  head,  called  the  Prince 
of  the  tribe.  To  the  chiefs  of  the  inferior  divisions  the 
common  title  of  Head  of  the  House  of  Fathers  was  given. 
The  same  title  was  sometimes  applied  to  the  chief  of  a 
tribe,  as  that  of  House  of  Fathers  was  sometimes 
used  to  signify  a  tribe.  All  those  officers  together  con- 
stituted the  elders  of  Israel,  the  patriarchal  rulers,  and 
representatives  of  their  respective  divisions  of  the  peo- 
ple. The  smaller  sections  of  the  tribes,  especially  of 
the  more  populous,  must  have  ramified  into  a  great 
number. 

Those  offices  in  the  tribes,  and  subdivisions  of  tribes 
were  held  by  persons  to  whom  they  descended  by  right 
of  birth,  consistently  with  the  patriarchal  state  of  so- 
ciety out  of  which  they  grew. 

In  so  long  a  residence  among  an  idolatrous  people, 
the  Israelites  did  not  escape  corruption  of  the  faith  re- 
ceived from  their  fathers.  JSTor  were  they  altogether 
unprepared  to  accept  the  use  of  images  as  a  help  in 
worship.  Rachel's  gods,  stolen  from  her  father,  seem 
to  have  been  preserved  among  some  of  her  descendants, 
down  to  the  days  of  Joshua.  In  course  of  time,  they 
lost  the  true  conception  of  the  G-od  of  Israel,  and  learn- 
ed to  believe  that  he  was  acceptably  worshipped  in  ob- 
jects and  with  services  which  they  saw  in  Egypt.     In 


102  COMPARATIVE    RELIGION. 

a  religious  point  of  view,  that  period  was  one  of  great 
darkness — a  medieval  degeneracy,  issuing,  as  far  as  per- 
tained to  the  Israelites,  in  the  termination  of  the  patri- 
archal economy. 

In  all  the  great  seats  of  human  culture,  religious 
progress  had  resulted  in  the  worship  of  many  gods, 
with  rites  and  ceremonies  minutely  prescribed  and 
legally  enforced,  while  the  patriarchal  ministry  had 
either  developed  into  a  national  hierarchy  with  a 
priest-king  at  its  head,  or  given  place  to  a  powerful 
sacerdotal  caste.  And  the  distinctest  testimony  to 
that  fact  is  contained  in  the  revolutions  against  it. 

Law  was  the  outgrowth  of  religion,  regulating  in 
the  first  instance  the  duties  of  worship  and  extending, 
as  these  multiplied,  further  into  the  common  life  of 
man.  In  this  way  grew  up  the  laws  of  Manu  in  In- 
dia, the  exceedingly  minute  and  punctillious  legal  sys- 
tem of  China,  and  the  gloomier  and  more  oppressive 
sacerdotalism  of  Egypt.  Religion  ceased  to  be  spon- 
taneous, and  became  entirely  legal  and  obligatory,  in- 
terwoven with  the  state,  and  subject  to  the  very  laws 
which  had  proceeded  from  itself. 

Issuing  from  the  national  religion,  law  appeared, 
in  those  times,  as  divine  revelation,  as  coming  out  from 
God  and  vested  with  all  the  authority  of  divine  com- 
mand. A  sacerdotal  class  growing  up  simultaneously 
with  such  venerated  law  became,  in  the  course  of  hu- 
man nature,  as  absolute  and  domineering  as  the  sanc- 
tion under  which  they  acted  was  held  to  be  irresist- 
ible. In  China  that  bondage  was  lightest,  among 
the  Aryans  it  constituted  the  fetters  of  a  polytheistic 


n. HEBREWS    IN    EGYPT.  103 

ritual  becoming  progressively  more  and  more  idola- 
trous ;  but  not  yet  seriously,  interfering  witli  tlie  prac- 
tical business  of  life  and  enterprise ;  in  Egypt  it  was 
already  crusliing  out  the  life  of  individual  sponta- 
neity ;  but  in  all  alike  it  was,  or  was  becoming,  an  im- 
perative mould  in  which  the  lives  of  men  were  to  be 
shaped  and  confined. 


V-        '^'    ■  CHAPTEK  YL 

EPOCH  OF   THE  SECOND  MONOTHEISTIC  REFORMATION. 

When  primitive  religion  had  thus  been  obscured 
by  similar  progress  of  change  in  all  directions,  earnest 
and  intelligent  men,  aware  of  the  truth,  from  which 
the  people  and  priesthood  alike  had  departed,  began 
an  effort  to  roll  back  the  tide,  and  return  to  what  they 
thought  to  be  the  original  belief,  to  revive  the  simpler 
forms  of  worship,  and  to  put  once  more  the  idea  of 
one  spiritual  God  into  the  minds  of  worshippers.  To 
that  movement  belong  Moses,  Zoroaster  (Zarathustra), 
the  fourth  Amun-hotep  of  Egypt,  perhaps,  and  the 
Chinese  reformer  T'ang,  all  probably  not  far  from  the 
same  date,  and  all  pertaining  to  similar  stages  in  the 
history  of  their  respective  nations ;  far  from  equal  in 
importance,  but  all  alike  concerned  in  efforts  to  restore 
the  worship  of  one  God. 

That  was  a  true  religious  revolution,  not  based 
upon  human  reason,  but  upon  traditionary  faith  in 
divine  instructions,  revived  and  enlarged  by  new 
revelations  or  manifestations  of  Deity.  If  the  Chinese 
monarch  does  not  claim  to  have  immediate  revelation 
from  God,  he  trusts  to  immediate  direction  from  God, 
as  to  what  he  ought  to  do.  The  Egyptian  reform 
failed ;  such  was  its  defective  nature,  apparently,  that 


THE    SECOND    MOXOTIIEISTIC    IlEFOEMATION.  105 

it  had  no  right  to  succeed,  but  its  purpose  to  restore 
the  sole  worship  of  the  oue  ancient  god  of  Egypt,  as 
represented  by  the  sun,  is  as  plain  as  the  hieroglyph- 
ics can  make  it.  And  yet  it  is  not  by  the  name  Ra 
that  the  Deity  is  expressed,  but  by  Aten^  which  seems 
to  be  rightly  identified  with  the  Semitic  Adon  (He- 
brew Adonai).  His  own  name  the  king  changed  from 
Amun-\\otQ^  to  Cliw-Qn-Aten,  and  otherwise  removed 
from  about  him  all  trace  of  the  religion  which  he  re- 
jected. In  carrying  out  his  purpose,  he  did  not 
refrain  from  violence.  The  temples  of  other  gods  were 
closed,  and  their  images,  as  well  as  names,  effaced  from 
the  monuments,  especially  the  name  and  image  of 
Amun,  ''  the  supreme  god  of  Thebes.''  He  also  aban- 
doned Thebes,  and  "  built  another  capital  in  upper 
Egypt,  in  a  place  now  called  Tel-el- Amarna.  The 
ruins  of  this  city,  abandoned  after  his  death,  have  pre- 
served for  us  many  monuments  of  his  reign,  displaying 
very  advanced  art,  and  where  we  see  him  presiding 
over  the  ceremonies  of  his  new  worship."  Some  in- 
teresting resemblances  have  been  noticed  between  the 
external  forms  of  Israelitish  worship  in  the  desert, 
and  those  revealed  by  the  monuments  of  Tel-el-Amar- 
na.  Some  of  the  sacred  furniture,  such  as  the  '  Table 
of  Shew  Bread,'  described  in  the  book  of  Exodus,  as 
belonging  to  the  Tabernacle,  is  seen  in  the  representa- 
tions of  the  worship  oi  Aten.  Without  the  ceremo- 
nial of  .idolatry,  Amun-hotep  lY.  worships  the  god, 
whom  he  represents  by  the  sun,  alone,  as  the  immor- 
tal life-giving  and  protecting  Deity,  who  orders  all 
thin2:s  according  to  his  will.  And  the  name  by  which 
5* 


106  COMPAKATIVE   RELIGION. 

he  addressed  his  god  is  ahnost,  if  not  altogether,  iden- 
tical with  that  which  the  Israelites  reverently  substi- 
tuted in  reading  for  the  name  Jehovah. 

'Not  much  is  known  about  the  life  of  this  remark- 
able King.  For  succeeding  princes  defaced  many  of 
his  monuments.  But  his  appearance  upon  those  which 
remain,  evinces  intense  earnestness,  if  not  fanaticism. 
He  was  of  the  eighteenth  dynasty,  the  fourth  in  suc- 
cession from  Thothmes  III.  and  lived  somewhat  less 
than  fifteen  hundred  years  before  Christ. 

Touching  the  date  of  the  great  Bactrian  teacher, 
Zarathustra,  various  opinions  have  been  entertained,  but 
of  those  who  have  examined  the  subject  with  the 
most  careful  attention,  and  with  the  aid  of  the  most 
recent  research,  the  greater  number  agree  in  that  he 
lived  about  thirteen  hundred  years  before  Christ.  Such 
is  the  conclusion  reached  by  Dollinger,  by  Duncker 
and  by  Rapp ;  and  Haug  does  not  perhaps  greatly  dif- 
fer from  them  in  referring  the  production  of  the  Ga- 
thas  to  about  the  time  of  Moses.  The  Chinese  royal 
reform  belongs  to  an  earlier  date  and  was  not  a  revo- 
lution. Less  change  was  needed  in  order  to  return  to 
the  ancient  standard  which  the  reformer  regarded  as 
his  model. 

In  no  case  does  it  appear  that  the  movement  intro- 
duced a  new  god,  although  in  most  cases  a  new  name 
of  God.  The  pious  Chinese  king  simply  restores  the 
state  of  things  as  it  had  been  under  his  predecessors  of 
some  five  hundred  years  earlier,  with  great  reverence 
not  presuming  to  go  back  beyond  their  example.  But 
Amun-hotep,  while  he  devotes  himself  to  the  worship 


THE    SECOND    MONOTHEISTIC   KEFOEMATION.  107 

of  God  as  represented  by  the  sun,  and  in  that  in- 
troduces nothing  new ;  only  makes  sole,  what  had 
from  time  immemorial  been  chief,  in  Egypt,  but  which 
had  latterly  been  mixed  up  and  obscured  with  the 
worship  of  Amun  and  other  gods ;  yet  for  that  an- 
cient god  of  Egypt  he  uses  a  new  name.  Zarathus- 
tra  professedly  opposes  error,  and  rescues  religion  from. 
it ;  but  the  name  of  god,  which  he  uses,  appears  to  be 
different  from  any  of  those  belonging  to  the  religion 
out  of  which  he  comes.  And  Moses  explicitly  gives  a 
newly  revealed  name  of  the  same  God,  who  under 
another  name  was  known  to  the  earlier  patriarchs.  In 
the  latter  alone  is  the  authority  and  reason  assigned 
for  the  change.  It  is  that  the  idea  of  God  may  be 
completely  separated  once  more  from  all  association 
with  the  idolatry  and  mythology  which  had  grown  up 
around  it.  Moses  declares  unto  his  countrymen  the 
God  of  Abraham,  the  God  of  Isaac,  and  the  God  of 
Jacob ;  but  the  name  of  God  is  not  el  Shaddai  nor 
merely  Elohim,  but  I  AM  ;  the  God,  whom  the  patri- 
archs worshipped  without  images  is  now,  under  a  name 
suggestive  of  no  image,  and  of  only  original  existence, 
to  be  conspicuously  distinguished  from  all  the  gods  of 

Egypt. 

All  these  leaders  were  men  of  exalted  religious 
purpose,  having  a  single  aim  to  the  defence  or  restora- 
tion of  an  earlier  monotheism,  and  to  propagate  the 
knowledge  of  it  among  their  people.  It  was  a  move- 
ment full  of  God.  The  honor  and  service  of  God,  and 
nearness  to  God,  and  receiving  of  communications 
from  God,  as  a  man  from  his  teacher,  constitute  the 


108  "  COMPAEATIVE    EELIGION. 

principal  feature  of  all  its  literary  remain's.  To  Mo- 
ses God  reveals  himself  both  orally  and  by  visible 
signs.  The  pious  monarch,  T'ang,  has  no  other  way 
of  knowing  God's  will  but  that  of  prayer,  of  the  im- 
pression spiritually  made  upon  his  mind,  and  of  the 
providential  ordering  of  events ;  but  to  these  he  ap- 
plies with  earnest  desire  to  know  what  God  would 
have  him  do,  as  well  as  for  the  sanction  of  what  he 
has  done  ;  and  he  consults  with  the  wisest  in  his 
kingdom,  to  guard  as  far  as  he  can,  against  mistake  in 
interpreting  the  meaning  of  events.  But  he  was  re- 
garded by  his  own  and  subsequent  generations  as  es- 
pecially favored  by  God  ;  and  long  after  the  downfall 
of  his  dynasty,  and  the  successful  establishment  of 
another,  T'ang  was  worshipjDed  with  more  than  com- 
mon ancestral  honors.  In  the  odes  and  sacrifice  of 
Shang,  in  the  fourth  part  of  the  She-King  his  name  is 
repeatedly  mentioned  with  the  highest  veneration. 

**  The  favor  of  God  did  not  leave  (Shang), 
And  in  T'ang  was  found  the  subject  for  its  display," 
"  Brilliant  was  the  influence  of  his  character  for  long, 
And  God  appointed  him  to  be  a  model  to  the  nine 


Zarathustra,  in  opposition  to  polytheism,  teaches  that 
there  is  but  one  God,  the  Creator  of  heaven  and  earth, 
and  that  he  alone  is  the  proper  object  of  adoration.  Like 
Moses  he  holds  that  they  who  would  worship  God  aright 
must  worship  him  according  to  his  own  instructions, 
and  in  perfect  purity,  and  distinctly  expresses  his  be- 


THE    SECOND    MONOTHEISTIC    REFORMATION.         109 

lief  that  men  need  revelation  from  God  himself  in  or- 
der to  find  that  end. 

It  was  a  peculiar  feature  of  the  xlvestan  reforma- 
tion, that  it  rejected  ceremonial  observances  to  the  ex- 
tent of  abolishing  sacrifice,  in  its  ordinary  sense,  and 
confining  the  duties  of  worship  to  prayer  and  praise, 
the  study  and  recitation  of  the  sacred  hymns,  and  pu- 
rity of  life.  The  Mosaic  system,  on  the  other  hand, 
recognized  the  existing  methods  of  worship  as  having 
a  powerful  hold  upon  the  public  mind  ;  and  accepting 
that  as  the  actual  condition,  took  it  as  the  basis  of  in- 
struction, and  did  not  at  once  make  a  clean  sweep 
away  of  all  forms  and  ceremonies  ;  but  adopting  such 
as  were  capable  of  conversion  into  means  of  instruc- 
tion for  the  time  being,  filled  them  with  a  new  and 
spiritual  meaning  in  relation  to  Jehovah,  and  prophet- 
ic _of  better  things  to  come.  The  Mosaic  ritual  was 
also  accompanied  throughout  with  a  spiritual  and  in- 
tellectual instruction,  fixing  attention  upon  the  spirit- 
ual meaning  thus  imparted  to  the  forms,  and  nrging 
that  the  forms,  without  their  spiritual  meaning,  were 
worse  than  useless ;  and  preparing  the  people  for  the 
better  time,  when  all  the  forms  and  ceremonial  laws, 
their  typical  import  being  fulfilled,  should  be  no  longer 
needed,  and  the  people  of  Jehovah  should  be  able  to 
apprehend  him  as  a  spirit  to  be  worshipped  in  spirit  and 
in  truth. 

A  ritual,  at  first  very  simple,  subsequently  expanded 
around  the  Avestan  religion,  constituting  its  outward 
form.  But  that  was  contrary  to  the  purpose  of  its 
founder,  and  opened  the  gate   by  which  corruption 


110  COMPAEATITE    EELTGION. 

entered.  Accepted  bj  the  Persian  nation,  it  separated 
them  the  more  from  their  Aryan  kinsmen  of  India,  who 
meanwhile  held  on  to  the  further  unfolding  of  the 
Brahmanical  ceremonial,  constructing  it  into  a  legal 
system. 

The  Mosaic  economy,  in  a  similar  way,  set  the  He- 
brew people  apart  from  the  progressive  corruptions  of 
Egypt  and  the  nations  of  western  Asia. 

The  grand  point  on  which  those  ancient  reforma- 
tions agreed  was  that  of  taking  up  from  the  past  the 
spiritual  worship  of  the  One  God,  the  Creator  of  heav- 
en and  earth,  and  presenting  it  as  being  originally 
taught  by  revelation.  On  this  point,  the  Mosaic,  al- 
though establishing  a  ceremonial  and  a  sacerdotal  order, 
w-as  the  most  stringent  of  all.  "  Thou  shalt  have  no 
other  God  beside  me,"  was  its  first  commandment. 
And  it  as  sweepingly,  in  its  second  commandment,  ex- 
cluded idolatry  of  every  kind. 

Although  aiming  to  restore  the  simple  elements  of 
primitive  worship,  the  reformers  could  not  restore  its 
primitive  simplicity.  They  could  restore  only  by  pre- 
scribing it  and  its  observances,  enforcing  them  by  law, 
and  enacting  special  prohibition  of  anything  to  the 
contrary.  In  all  cases,  that  reformation  was  of  neces- 
sity legal,  and  the  authority  of  its  law  was  the  same 
One  God  of  heaven  and  earth,  whose  worship  it  en- 
joined. It  attempted  to  revive  pure  monotheism  by 
authority  of  divine  law. 

It  was  in  the  progress  of  the  legal  tendency 
of  the  original  religions  that  the  great  monotheistic 
restoration  arose.     That  its  leaders  had  knowledge  of 


n. HEBREW    EXODE.  Ill 

each  other,  we  cannot  assert ;  that  any  two  of  them  were 
contemporaneous  we  do  not  know  ;  but  that  they  all 
lived  at  corresponding  stages  of  religions  progress  in 
their  respective  nations,  and  not  far  from  the  same 
period  in  general  history,  there  is  sufficient  evidence. 
And  the  identity  of  the  doctrine  they  advocated,  evinc- 
ing a  widely  extended  religious  interest  of  the  purest 
and  loftiest  character,  is  the  most  remarkable  fact  in 
the  history  of  the  world  in  those  centuries.  But  inter- 
esting as  any  one  of  them  is,  the  Hebrew  in  its  pecu- 
liar features,  and  in  the  vastness  of  its  influence  over 
the  most  progressive  civilization,  and  the  most  widely 
ruling  nations  of  the  modern  world,  merits  a  more 
particular  attention. 


PI. 

HEBREW    EXODE. 


'  Under  the  Theban  kings  of  the  new  royal  house,  who 
knew  not  or  chose  not  to  recognize  the  services  of  Jo- 
seph,  the  Hebrew  residents  in  Egypt  were  grievously 
oppressed.  "  The  Egyptians  made  their  lives  bitter  with 
hard  bondage,  in  mortar  and  in  brick  and  in  all  man- 
ner of  service  in  the  field  ;  all  their  service  wherewith 
they  made  them  serve  was  with  rigor."  As  illustra- 
tive of  the  work  to  which  they  were  constrained  in  the 
royal  brickyards,  may  be  adduced  a  monument  from  the 
tomb  of  E-ek-sha-re,  architect  of  some  of  the  great  struc- 
tures of  Thothmes  III.,  in  which  the  process  of  brick- 
making  is  delineated.    The  workmen,  employed  in  vari- 


112  COMPARATIVE    RELIGION. 

Oils  parts  of  the  drudgery,  are  foreigners  of  Semitic  fea- 
tures, and  comparatively  fair  complexion,  and  the  task- 
masters, standing,  or  seated  beside  them  with  each  his 
rod  in  his  hand,,  are  Egyptians,  as  determined  by  their 
features,  and  the  characteristic  brick-red  color  of  tlie 
skin.  We  cannot  assert  that  the  workmen  there  depict- 
ed are  Hebrews  ;  but  the  scene  is  precisely  such  as  that 
described  in  Exodus  of  the  Hebrew  brickmakers,  and 
belongs  to  a  date  at  wdiich  it  is  probable  that  the  He- 
brews were  suffering  in  such  service.  Under  that 
hard  bondage,  they  were  constrained  to  agricultural 
habits,  and  to  the  practice  of  all  the  arts  necessary  to 
agricultural  life :  and  others  of  them,  as  well  as  Moses, 
became  more  or  less  learned  in  the  wisdom  of  the 
Egyptians;  as  appears  in  the  fact  tiiat  among  them, 
within  less  than  a  year  after  the  exode,  were  found 
artists  to  execute  all  the  designs  for  the  tabernacle,  its 
furniture,  utensils,  and  embellishment ;  and  the  legis- 
lation revealed  to  them  at  Sinai  presupposes  the  people 
already  formed  to  agricultural  pursuits.  Their  subse- 
quent nomadic  life  in  the  desert,  was  not  of  their 
choice,  and  was  felt  by  the  most  of  them  to  be  an  afflic- 
tion. In  their  *'murmurings  against  Moses,"  their  re- 
grets are  always  turned  to  the  humble  comforts  of 
agricultural  life  in  Egypt.  As  a  nation  they  had  com- 
pletely abandoned  the  nomadic  tastes  of  their  fore- 
fathers. ; 

After  a  residence  in  Egypt  of  four  hundred  and 
thirty  years,  and  most  probably  after  the  middle  of 
the  eighteenth  dynasty  of  Egyptian  kings,  the  descend- 
ants of  Jacob  were  delivered  from  their  servitude  by 


II. HEBREW    EXODE.  113 

extraordinary  interposition  of  Divine  power.  To  the 
preparation  of  Moses  by  natural  means,  for  the  duties  of 
that  great  revolution,  miracles  were  added  to  sustain 
his  authority  and  to  overwhelm  the  power  of  opposition. 
The  Egyptian  king  had  seen  the  religion  of  his  na- 
tion sustained  by  the  wonderful  feats  of  its  priesthood, 
and  held  that  miracles  were  the  way  for  a  god  to 
evince  his  presence  in.  It  had  been  foretold  that  he 
would  challenge  Moses  and  Aaron  to  substantiate  the 
claims  of  their  God  in  that  way.  And  so  it  seems  he 
did.  Egypt  was  eminently  the  land  of  such  preten- 
sions. The  worship  of  its  idol  gods  was  full  of  mys- 
tery and  miracle,  and  great  was  their  hold  upon  the 
convictions  of  the  world  in  general.  It  belonged  to 
the  work  of  emancipating  Israel  to  expose  the  nothing- 
ness of  the  gods  of  Egypt,  and  to  defeat  their  priests 
in  their  proudest  pretensions.  The  wonders  wrought 
to  that  end  increased  in  inipressiveness  as  they  suc- 
ceeded each  other.  Beginning  from  the  favorite  feats 
with  serpents  practiced  by  the  priests  to  produce  be- 
lief in  their  supernatural  power — from  the  level  of 
their  enchantments,  and  belittling  them  in  the  use  of 
their  own  artifices,  they  swelled  into  the  command  of 
all  the  elements  of  nature.  From  the  mere  signs, 
which  were  sufiicient  to  evince  the  real  presence  of 
Divine  power,  as  distinguished  from  the  juggling 
tricks  of  magicians,  they  successively  rose  to  such 
magnitude  and  comprehensiveness,  as  no  magician 
could  imitate.  They  became  plagues  over  the  whole 
country,  alarming,  terrific,  awfully  sublime  in  their 
supernatural  horrors,  until  the  series  was  crowned  by 


114  COMPAEATIVE    KELIGION. 

that  dreadful  night  of  doom,  when  Jehovah  went  out 
into  the  midst  of  Egypt,  and  smote  all  the  first  born, 
both  of  man  and  beast,  and  executed  judgment  against 
all  the  gods  of  the  Egyptians.  That  nation  which 
had  long  been  beguiled  by  false  miracles,  was  made  to 
feel  the  real  hand  of  the  wonder-working  Jehovah. 
In  that  presence  the  enchantments  of  magicians  were 
but  the  play  of  children,  imitations  which  could  add 
but  little  to  the  evil,  and  were  helpless  to  counteract 
or  allay  it.  These  works  were  wrought  on  behalf  of 
the  Israelites,  but  were  addressed  to  the  Egyptians,  as 
an  aro^ument  for  them  to  abandon  their  errors,  and 
return  to  the  worship  of  the  one  God  whom  their 
fathers  knew.  IS'or  is  it  improbable  that  some  Egyp- 
tians may  have  been  so  affected  by  them. 

All  the  ten  plagues  were  inflicted  in  rapid  succes- 
sion, occupying  not  much  more  than  two  months  from 
about  the  beginning  of  February.  Whatever  else 
may  be  said  of  them,  any  attempt  to  identify  them 
with  natural  events  in  the  seasons,  or  physical  features 
of  the  country,  or  changes  of  the  river,  is  inconsistent 
with  the  facts  of  the  narrative.  There  are  no  natural 
occurrences  which  correspond  to  the  conditions.  The 
last  plague  was  a  direct  blow  at  the  patriarchal  sys- 
tem, in  the  monstrous  development  of  which  the 
Egyptians  had  constructed  their  elaborate  idolatry. 
It  carried  off  all  the  highest  of  their  priests;  and 
among  the  animals  which  were  found  dead  that  awful 
night  were  many  of  the  most  venerated  objects  of 
their  mythology.  Judgment  had  been  executed  against 
the  gods  of  Egypt,  and  the  people  that  served  them. 


n. HEBREW    EXODE.  11 5 

From  that  judgment  the  Israelites  were  saved. 
But  they  could  be  saved  only  by  an  atonement.  A 
new  sacrificial  observance  was  enacted  for  the  occasion. 
The  people  were  to  evince  their  faith  and  obedience 
by  selecting,  four  days  previously,  a  lamb  or  a  kid, 
which  was  to  be  kept  up  until  the  evening  of  the  four- 
teenth day  of  the  month,  which  was  to  be  henceforward 
the  first  month  of  their  ecclesiastical  year.  Of  the 
blood,  some  was  to  be  sprinkled  on  the  lintels  and  posts 
of  their  doors,  the  sign  of  atonement,  by  which  the 
lives  of  the  inmates  were  to  be  saved.  It  was  another 
lesson  on  the  doctrine  that  without  shedding  of  blood 
there  was  no  remission  of  sin ;  and  embodied  in  a  new 
form  that  promise  which  lay  at  the  foundation  of  the 
Hebrew  faith. 

In  each  household  the  lamb  slain  for  it  was  to  be 
eaten  entirely  by  it ;  and  persons  were  instructed  to 
unite  themselves  into  households  of  such  number  as 
to  be  convenient  for  that  purpose,  and  if  any  part  re- 
mained uneaten,  it  was  to  be  burned.  They  were  to 
prepare  it  by  roasting,  and  to  put  it  on  the  table  whole. 
]^ot  a  bone  was  to  be  broken.  And  they  were  to  eat 
it  with  bitter  herbs  and  with  unleavened  bread,  and 
equipped  with  their  loins  girt,  with  their  shoes  on 
their  feet  and  staves  in  their  hands,  as  ready  for  a  jour- 
ney. And  from  the  evening  when  the  lamb  was  slain, 
the  fourteenth  of  the  month,  until  the  evening  of  the 
twenty-first,  they  were  to  use  none  but  unleavened 
bread.  The  first  and  the  last  days  of  that  interval  of 
time,  were  to  be  days  of  public  worship,  in  which  no 
servile  work  was  to  be  done.     The  observance  was  to 


116  COMPARATIVE    KELIGION. 

be  repeated  aniiiiallj ;  and  regulations  were  subse- 
quently laid  down  in  regard  to  it,  when  they  should  be 
settled  in  the  promised  land. 

Another  institution  was  enacted  at  that  time,  in 
the  consecration  of  the  first  born,  being  a  male,  of  every 
mother  ;  not  to  the  priesthood,  as  in  the  case  of  the  first 
born  of  the  father,  under  the  patriarchal  system,  but  as 
an  offering  to  God.  The  command  included,  in  the  same 
terms,  the  first  born  of  man  and  of  domestic  animals. 
But  it  was  provided  that  the  first  born  of  an  ass  should 
be  redeemed  with  a  lamb,  and  that  all  the  first  born  of 
man  should  be  redeemed.  The  substitution  was  soon 
after  provided  for  more  regnlarly  by  setting  apart  the 
Levites  instead  of  the  maternal  first  born  of  all  Israel, 
with  their  cattle  instead  of  the  maternal  first  born  of 
cattle.  The  Levites  were  not  all  priests,  but  they  were 
thus  consecrated  as  an  offering  to  God,  the  offering  of 
all  Israel,  and  consequently  no  longer  counted  as  a 
tribe.  They  were  an  offering  representative  of  the 
several  offerings  human  and  animal  of  all  the  tribes. 
And  out  of  them  consistently  the  priests  were  taken. 

Snch  was  the  impression  of  that  awful  night,  that 
Pharaoh  immediately  sent  for  Moses  and  Aaron,  and 
commanded  them,  with  their  people  and  all  that  they 
had,  to  get  forth  from  his  country.  The  Egyptians 
also  were  urgent,  and  freely  gave  them  whatever  they 
asked  to  accelerate  their  departure.  The  Israelites 
accordingly  left  Rameses,  a  city  which  they  had  built, 
or  fortified  for  Pharaoh,  on  the  morning  after  the  first 
passover,  while  their  oppressors  were  confounded  by 
the  judgment  which  had  just  fallen  upon  them,  and 


n. HEBKEW    EXODE.  117 

the  fifteenth  day  of  that  month  which  was  hencefor- 
ward to  be  to  them  the  first  month  of  the  year. 

Had  it  been  the  intention  of  their  leader  to  take 
them  to  Canaan  as  they  then  were,  the  way  lay  open 
directly  to  the  northeast.  Instead  of  that  he  conducted 
them  towards  the  southeast.  A  great  work  had  to  be 
performed  for  that  people  before  they  could  be  prepar- 
ed either  to  encounter  the  warlike  Canaanites,  or  to 
enter  upon  the  duties  of  their  national  existence.  Al- 
ready they  were  possessed  of  a  tribal  government ;  but 
that,  while  answering  the  purposes  of  local  order,  was 
more  powerful  to  divide  than  to  unite  the  different 
tribes.  A  constitution  was  needed  of  a  nature  to  bind 
them  together  in  common  bonds  as  one  nation ;  and 
they  needed  instruction  in  the  particular  duties  to  be 
demanded  of  them  under  the  new  economy  of  their  re- 
ligion. For  the  execution  of  that  work,  w^iicli  must 
take  many  months,  if  not  years,  no  better  place  could 
have  been  chosen  than  the  mountains  in  the  peninsula 
of  Sinai.  When,  with  that  intention,  Moses  was  lead- 
ing the  people  round  the  northern  extremity  of  the 
Hed  Sea,  he  announced  to  them  that  he  had  received 
an  order  from  God,  who  now  manifested  himself  as 
their  leader,  in  a  pillar  of  cloud  by  day  and  of  fire  by 
night,  that  they  should  march  down  the  western  coast. 
In  complying  with  that  order,  they  soon  found  them- 
selves shut  in  between  the  sea  and  the  mountains  on 
the  Egyptian  side.  Pharaoh  at  the  head  of  his  army 
was  now  in  pursuit.  The  Israelites,  fully  sensible  of 
their  danger,  loudly  censured  the  bad  generalship  of 
Moses,  as  leading  them  where  they  could  not  fail  to  be 


118  COMPARATIVE    KELIGION. 

destroyed.  Moses  told  them  to  stand  still  and  see  the 
salvation  of  Jehovah.  Soon  he  received  another  com- 
mand to  lift  his  rod  over  the  sea  and  for  the  people  to 
go  forward.  The  pillar  of  clond  removed  from  be- 
fore them  and  passed  over  between  them  and  the 
Egyptians,  being  a  dark  cloud  over  the  latter ;  but  on 
the  side  towards  Israel  a  light  shining  upon  the  path 
by  which  they  had  to  go.  And  as  the  multitude  ad- 
vanced, a  strong  east  wind  caused  the  waters  to  go 
back,  leaving  the  channel  bare  for  tiieir  passage.  All 
night  they  marched  on  over  the  wet  sands  to  the  oppo- 
site shore,  and  when  the  last  of  them  had  reached  it 
in  the  morning  watch,  Jehovah  brought  the  sea  again 
to  its  place,  and  the  Egyptians,  w^ho  were  pursuing, 
were  overwhelmed  in  the  returning  waters. 

Now  was  the  deliverance  of  Israel  complete.  ]N"ot  only 
was  the  Red  Sea  put  between  them  and  their  enemies, 
which  could  have  been  done  by  going  round  the  head 
of  the  sea,  but  the  great  army  which  otherwise  would 
have  pursued  them  into  the  desert,  and  which  thej 
were  not  in  a  condition  to  encounter,  was  destroyed. 
In  the  majestic  psalm  composed  by  Moses,  and  in  the 
performance  of  which  he  w^as  joined  by  the  chorus  of 
the  emancipated  people,  the  entire  praise  of  victory  is 
ascribed  to  Jehovah.  In  that  incomparable  triumphal 
hymn  the  name,  or  agency,  of  a  human  victor  is  not 
once  alluded  to.  It  is  Jehovah  who  has  triumphed 
gloriously. 

The  course  now  pursued  was  nearly  parallel  to  the 
shore  of  the  Red  Sea,  southward,  until  they  came  op- 
posite to  the  Sinaitic  Mountains,  when   they  turned 


n. HEBREW    EXODE.  119 

eastward  into  some  of  the  valleys  leading  to  the  centre 
of  the  gronp.  While  on  that  part  of  their  march  they 
fought  their  first  battle.  It  was  with  the  Amalekites : 
and  they  were  taught  that  their  \ictory  was  won  only 
by  the  power  of  Jehovah,  and  in  accordance  with  the 
prayers  and  uplifted  hands  of  Moses.  Miracles  had 
been  wrought  for  them ;  the  bitter  well  of  Marah  had 
been  sweetened  for  their  use,  and  when  the  provisions 
brought  with  them  from  Egypt  were  exhausted,  that 
supply  of  manna  began,  which  never  failed  them  af- 
terwards during  all  their  residence  in  the  desert.  Quails 
were  brought  them  from  the  sea,  and  water  was  mi- 
raculously supplied  them  in  the  rocky  waste  of  Rephi- 
dim. 

About  six  weeks  after  their  departure  from  Raam- 
ses,  the  host  of  Israel  arrived  at  the  foot  of  Mount  Si- 
nai, where  they  remained  a  year,  all  but  ten  days.  Dates 
are  given  with  precision.  The  existence  of  Israel  as  a 
nation  begins  with  the  first  Passov^er.  Until  that  time 
they  had  been  only  a  family  of  tribes,  under  the  com- 
mon government  of  a  foreign  power.  Then  they  be- 
come a  nation,  liberated  and  under  a  leader  of  their 
own.  But  it  was  at  Sinai  that  they  received  the  con- 
stitution and  laws  which  shaped  their  national  char- 
acter. 

The  desert,  in  which  they  were  now  to  wander  so 
long,  is  part  of  that  great  belt  of  barren  country  which 
extends  in  greater  or  less  desolation,  and  with  little  in- 
terruption, *from  the  plains  of  India,  increasing  in 
breadth  and  sterility  towards  the  west  until  its  burning 
sands  are  quenched  in  the  waters  of  the  Atlantic  ocean. 


120  COMPAEATIVE   EELIGION. 

The  principal  interruptions  are  in  its  eastern  part,  the 
country  on  the  Indus,  the  country  of  the  Iranian 
plateau  where  well  watered,  the  Persian  Gulf,  the  Ked 
Sea,  and  the  Nile,  and  wherever  springs  of  water  are 
protected  from  the  overflowing  sands,  by  mountains 
or  otherwise.  That  part  of  it  where  Israel  took  refuge 
is  protected  by  both  the  sea  and  lofty  mountains. 
Most  of  the  desert  consists  of  flat,  or  undulating  table- 
lands. But  in  the  peninsula  of  Sinai,  a  great  deal  of  it 
rises  into  lofty  mountains,  interspersed  with  valleys 
containing  springs  of  water  and  abundant  vegetation : 
and  the  climate  is  mild  and  healthful.  Towards  the 
south,  where  it  lies  between  the  two  extreme  bays  of 
the  Red  Sea,  the  mountains  attain  their  greatest  eleva- 
tion, in  a  vast  group  of  which  Sinai  on  the  south  and 
Horeb  on  the  north  are  the  most  historical.  A  third 
summit,  now  called  Mount  St.  Catherine,  is  the  highest, 
rising  to  about  eight  thousand  feet  from  the  level  of  the 
sea.  The  height  of  Sinai  is  7497  feet.  Thence  the 
mountains  run  at  various  elevations  in  a  chain  parallel 
with  the  eastern  bay,  and  northward  constituting  the 
western  boundary  of  the  Wady  Arabah,  until  they 
merge  in  the  table-land  of  Palestine.  Nearly  opposite 
the  northern  end  of  the  eastern  gulf,  a  chain  of  moun- 
tains, called  in  modern  Arabic  Jebel  et  Tih,  strikes  out 
toward  the  west,  but  bending  first  to  the  southwest, 
then  to  the  northwest,  and  terminates  near  the  head  of 
the  western  bay,  like  a  cord  suspended  between  those 
two  points.  South  of  that  chain  lie  the  higher  sum- 
mits, and  the  consecrated  scenery  of  the  peninsula. 
North   of  it,  and   westward  from  the  eastern  ridges, 


n. HEBREW    EXODE.  121 

spreads  out  an  elevated  table-land,  with  a  general  slope 
towards  the  west,  until  it  sinks  into  a  plain  terminat- 
ing in  the  Mediterranean  Sea  and  the  borders  of  Egypt. 
Israel,  for  the  most  part,  avoided  it,  and  in  their  wan- 
derings clung  to  their  refuge  among  the  mountains. 
Only  in  making  the  indispensable  crossing  from  Sinai 
to  Palestine,  do  we  read  of  their  marching  through 
the  eastern  part  of  it,  and  of  their  return,  after  failure 
of  the  first  attempt.  In  the  end  of  their  desert  sojourn 
the  same  had  to  be  repeated.  That  expedition,  in  the 
first  instance,  was  connected  in  their  history  with  wo- 
ful  disaster.  It  was  afterwards  referred  to  by  Moses 
as  their  journey  through  that  ''  great  and  terrible  wil- 
derness.'' I^orthward  its  boundaries  were  the  Medi- 
terranean sea,  the  borders  of  the  Philistines  and  the 
mountains  of  the  Amorites. 

In  that  region  were  the  singular  people  of  Israel 
formed  into  a  nation. 

In  many  particulars,  the  people  who  followed 
Moses  were  difierent  from  the  family  which  went 
down  to  Egypt  at  the  invitation  of  Pharaoh.  They 
were  no  longer  migratory  herdsmen,  but  had  taken 
upon  them  much  of  the  manner  of  the  land  where 
they  had  resided  so  long,  had  been  constrained  into 
those  habits  of  settled  life,  and  agricultural  industry 
so  hard  for  Pomades  to  learn,  and  yet  indispensable 
for  those  who  were  to  be  the  occupants  of  an  agricultu- 
ral country,  and  the  depositories  of  a  sacred  learning. 
They  had  now  seen  and  learned,  and  become  familiar 
with  the  practice  of  the  arts  of  Egypt,  and  contracted 
a  dislike  for  the  wandering  pastoral  life  of  their 
6 


122  COMPARATIVE   RELIGION. 

fathers.  But  the  coinpulsion  necessary  to  eifect  that 
change  had  broken  their  energy  of  spirit,  and  bent 
them  to  weakness  and  servility,  while  long  intercourse 
with  idol  worshippers  had  deeply  corrupted  their 
hereditary  faith.  It  consequently  became  necessary 
to  renew  their  knowledge  of  God,  and  to  expand  their 
religious  instruction  in  accordance  with  the  wider 
range  of  duties  about  to  be  exacted  of  them,  as  well  as 
to  raise  up  a  new  generation,  under  circumstances,  and 
with  education  of  a  nature  to  elicit  energy,  courage 
and  entire  faith  in  the  God  of  Abraham. 

Accordingly,  they  were  early  made  witnesses  of 
sensible  signs  of  Jehovah's  presence,  and  thoroughly 
impressed  with  the  blessedness  of  his  favor,  and  the 
terrors  of  his  vengeance.  At  Sinai  they  dwelt  in  sight 
of  the  clouds  and  thunder  and  lightning  and  tempest, 
which  declared  the  power  of  God,  employed  in,  or 
witnesses  of  the  work  connected  with  the  revelation 
of  the  law,  and  erection  of  the  tabernacle  under  God's 
command.  And  forty  years  the  mysterious  pillar  of 
cloud  or  of  fire  was  continually  before  their  eyes,  and 
daily  the  miraculous  supply  of  manna  fell  around 
their  camp ;  and  sometimes  they  beheld  the  proof  of 
the  divine  justice  in  signal  punishment  of  the  disobe- 
dient. In  the  desert  they  were  separated  from  all 
contamination  or  contact  with  the  heathen,  and  formed 
to  the  institutions  provided  for  them,  as  if  they  had 
been  taken  out  of  the  world. 

"With  exception  of  the  temporary  regulations  for 
their  desert  life,  the  laws  revealed  at  Sinai  were  pro- 
vided for  their  government  when  settled  in  the  land 


II. HEBREW    EXODE.  123 

of  Canaan.  Alread}^  they  possessed  the  organization 
growing  out  of  their  division  by  tribes,  and  subdivis- 
ions of  tribes,  and  groups  of  families  near  of  kin. 
And  their  government  according  to  the  principles  of 
common  justice,  by  their  patriarchal  oflBcers,  was  in 
full  operation  before  their  departure  from  Egypt. 
That  structure  was  not  now  abolished.  But  adopting 
it,  and  comprehending  it,  there  was  now  revealed  a 
national  system  much  more  complete.  The  patriarchal 
element  was  retained  in  the  ancient  nation  of  Israel  to 
the  last,  but  as  incorporated  with,  and  subordinated  to, 
the  constitution  given  at  Sinai.  The  elders  of  the 
people  became  their  local  rulers,  and  their  representa- 
tives in  all  general  assemblies  of  the  nation. 

How  deeply  familiarity  with  Egyptian  idolatrous 
practices  had  corrupted  the  Hebrew  people,  appeared 
in  the  fact  that  on  one  occasion  during  the  absence  of 
Moses,  they  made  to  themselves  a  golden  image  of  a 
calf,  after  the  manner  ol  the  Apis  worship  of  Egypt, 
and  paid  adoration  to  it,  as  the  representative  of  Jeho- 
vah, the  god  who  had  delivered  them  from  bondage: 
and  Aaron,  the  elder  brother  of  Moses,  instead  of  re- 
sisting, was  led  away  by  the  error,  and  suffered  him- 
self to  become  the  leader  in  it.  Clearly,  they  were  at 
that  time  as  ready  to  become  thoroughgoing  idolaters 
as  any  of  their  neighbors.  That  they  did  not  was  due 
to  nothing  ethnic  in  them. 


124  COMPARATIVE   RELIGION. 

III. 

LEGISLATION   AT    SINAI. 

In  the  code  given  at  Sinai  we  find,  first  of  all,  a 
moral  law,  containing  tlie  fnndamental  principles  of 
right  action  for  man,  in  all  his  relations  to  God  and 
his  fellow-men:  secondly,  a  ceremonial  law  specially 
addressed  to  the  religious  observances  of  tlie  theocratic 
nation  ;  and  thirdly,  a  system  of  civil  laws,  for  the  di- 
rection of  the  various  ministers  of  the  government,  and 
to  guide  in  the  administration  of  justice.  These  three, 
although  in  themselves  distinct,  were,  owing  to  the 
theocratic  and  sacerdotal  character  of  the  government, 
and  the  circumstances  of  their  delivery,  intermingled 
in  the  order  of  institution.  The  course  of  time  so  com- 
pletely separated  them,  that  while  the  civil  element 
ceased  to  be  in  force  with  the  independence  of  the  na- 
tion, and  the  ceremonial  ceased  to  be  practicable  with  the 
destruction  of  the  temple  and  the  expulsion  of  the  peo- 
ple from  Palestine,  the  moral  element  remains  un- 
changed, having  taken  its  place  as  the  moral  code  of 
all  christian  lands. 

The  foundation  of  this  new  polity  was  religion, 
a  religion  which  differed  importantly  from  that  of 
Egypt,  or  that  of  any  other  nation  then  upon  the  earth. 
It  revived  the  old  doctrines  of  one  spiritual  personal 
God,  ruler  of  heaven  and  earth,  and  of  peace  with  him 
through  sacrificial  atonement ;  in  the  former,  present- 
ing what  had  lain  at  the  foundation  of  primitive  reli- 
gion, and  constituted  the  strength  of  every  genuine 


in. — LEGISLATION   AT   SINAI.  125 

reformation,  that  doctrine  which,  bringing  man  near 
to  his  Maker,  gives  him  dignity,  truth  and  energy ; 
and  in  the  latter  the  central  truth  of  all  that  is  called 
redemption  among  Jews  and  Christians. 

Its  moral  system  is  the  most  remarkable  work  of  its 
kind,  containing  within  tlie  compass  of  ten  brief  pre- 
cepts a  summary  of  morals  which,  for  justness,  com- 
prehensiveness, and  universality  of  application,  with 
sufficient  discrimination  for  practice,  is  without  an 
equal.  All  its  subordinate  precepts  are  of  the  same 
spirit,  of  a  nature  to  enforce  justice,  truth,  purity  of 
life,  and  of  worship,  and  brotherly  kindness  among  the 
sons  of  Israel,  with  reverence  for  the  spiritual  presence 
of  Jehovah. 

Its  ecclesiastical  system  differed  in  some  important 
respects  from  that  of  the  foregoing  time.  The  reli- 
gious society  of  the  patriarchs  had  been  a  family,  that 
of  the  growing  tribes  must  have  been  of  the  same  type 
divided  among  a  great  many  families :  the  new  reli- 
gious society  was  to  be  a  nation,  and  the  religious  ob- 
servances a  legal  system. 

That  first  principle  of  patriarchal  government, 
whereby  the  offices  of  sovereignty,  priesthood  and  in- 
struction, or  prophecy,  were  united  in  the  head  of  the 
family,  was  now  set  aside.  God  is  himself  presented 
as  the  sovereign,  and  the  official  duties  are  assigned  to 
different  persons  among  the  people.  Israel  is  to  stand 
as  a  priest  before  the  one  invisible  God,  and  in  relation 
to  the  rest  of  mankind.  We  have  no  evidence  that 
any  other  nation  looked  upon  the  Israelites  in  that 
light,  nor  thought  of  their  religion  as  other  than  one 


126  COMPARATIVE    RELIGION. 

among  the  many,  the  worship  as  some  at  least  thought, 
of  a  very  powerful  god.  But  in  whatever  way  they 
thought  of  it,  there  was  the  open  fact  of  a  national 
testimony  to  the  doctrine  of  the  one  invisible  personal 
God  held  up  before  the  world.  The  very  existence 
and  national  constitution  of  that  people  was  a  constant 
proclamation  of  their  monotheistic  faith,  and  of  the 
promise  which  its  worship  implied. 

In  reaching  its  fullest  development  under  circum- 
stances most  favorable  to  civilization,  the  patriarchal 
system  had  becom.e  exaggerated  into  absolute  mon- 
archy, and  monopoly  of  priesthood  and  instruction  in 
the  hands  of  an  hereditary  few.  In  the  house  of  Is- 
rael the  patriarchal  was  suffered  to  develop  only  to  a  cer- 
tain length,  when  its  further  growth  was  stayed  and 
it  was  taken  up  and  woven  into  a  new  economy  more 
suitable  for  a  nation.  What  saved  Israel  from  going 
the  way  of  all  the  rest  of  the  world  was  the  act  which 
checked  development  of  the  patriarchal  at  the  point 
where  it  w^as  about  to  run  into  monstrosity,  and  in- 
troduced a  new  set  of  causes. 

The  principal  features  of  that  new  economy  were, 
first,  a  consecrated  nation  under  God  as  their  King; 
second,  sensible  and  permanent  symbols  of  Jehovah's 
presence ;  third,  an  organized  and  hereditary  priest- 
hood ;  fourth,  a  system  of  observances  typical  of  things 
belonging  to  a  future  dispensation ;  and  fifth,  approach 
to  God  through  those  appointed  means.  All  the  spir- 
itual elements  of  the  foregoing  economy  were  retained, 
but  taught  more  fully,  and  in  the  language  of  a  typical 
ceremonial  greatly  extended  and  legally  enforced. 


m. — LEGISLATION   AT   SINAI.  127 

As  the  whole  people  of  Israel  were  to  hold  them- 
selves specially  near  to  Jehovah,  in  one  sense,  a  priest 
nation,  so  ceremonies  of  purification  were  appointed  to 
impress  upon  them  the  idea  of  purity  of  habits  and 
holiness  of  spirit.  To  the  sons  of  Levi,  who  were 
especially  set  apart  to  religious  and  literary  duties, 
additional  rites  of  purification  were  assigned.  And  of 
that  house  the  family  of  Aaron  were  appointed  to  be 
priests  with  more  ceremonial  cleansing,  and  finally  the 
most  elaborate  purification  was  prescribed  for  the  high 
priest,  who  moreover  could  not  make  his  annual  en- 
trance into  the  Holy  of  Holies  without  specific  purifi- 
cation and  blood  of  sacrifice.  The  truth  that  God  is 
holy  and  cannot  dwell  with  iniquity  was  inculcated  by 
the  lesson  of  such  observances,  accumulated  and  strin- 
gent, in  proportion  to  the  nearness  of  approach  to  the 
signs  of  his  presence. 

To  this  there  is  a  striking  similarity  in  the  Avesta, 
where  the  constantly  urged  spiritual  purity  of  the 
Gathas  becomes  the  laborious  and  legally  enforced 
ceremonial  of  the  later  scriptures. 

Every  error  then  prevalent  in  the  world,  which 
that  new  Hebrew  economy  touched,  it  provided  with  a 
remedy.  Among  things  condemned,  polytheism  and 
idolatry  are  prohibited  with  particular  severity  and 
in  detail ;  and  that  not  only  among  things  specifically 
religious,  but  also  at  the  head  of  the  moral  law.  As 
to  polytheism,  Jehovah  says  I  am  the  Lord ;  and  thou 
shalt  have  no  other  God  beside  me.  And  of  idolatry 
the  prohibition  is  the  most  sweeping  conceivable,  ex- 
tending to  the  making  of  any  figure  whatsoever,  and  to 


128  COMPARATIVE   EELIGION. 

the  bowing  down  or  serving  in  any  w^ay  whatever  any 
object  but  Jehovah.  I^o  distinction  is  recognized 
between  lyroskynesis  and  latreia.  They  are  both 
alike  put  under  the  same  uncjualiiied  condemnation.* 
In  all  cases  the  prohibition  is  addressed  to  the  radical 
elements  of  the  evil.  In  thus  assailino^  the  structures 
of  iniquity  by  applying  means  to  crumble  their  mate- 
rials, Jehovah's  lessons  to  the  Hebrews  became  perpet- 
ual instructions  for  all  mankind. 

In  as  far  as  the  legislation  at  Sinai  revealed  a  civil 
code,  it  had  a  view  to  the  establishment  of  the  He- 
brew people  in  the  promised  land.  That  land  they 
were  to  take  possession  of,  and  hold  as  tlie  gift  of  God, 
and  every  family  was  to  receive  an  estate  in  it,  ina- 
lienable, as  long  as  they  rendered  the  required  service 
to  the  Giver.  But  only  on  condition  of  maintaining 
the  true  worship  of  God  was  their  '^nheritance  given 
and  secured  to  them.  Upon  turning  aside  to  any 
other  religion,  they  forfeited  all.  Levites  alone  were 
not  assigned  to  any  separate  territory.  They  were 
dedicated  to  the  service  of  religion  and  of  public  in- 
struction ;  and  accordingly,  were  distributed  in  sepa- 
rate towns  over  the  whole  country,  and  the  tenths  and 
first  fruits  were  to  be  paid  yearly  by  all  the  other 
tribes  for  their  supj)ort.  Such  were  the  constitutional 
checks  upon  the  sacerdotal  class  that  it  could  never  be- 
come a  sacerdotal  aristocracy. 

The  form  of  the  government  was  determined  on 
the  same  principle  as  their  religion.  God  w^as  to  be 
their  king.  But  they  were  to  be  his  free  subjects ;  and 
*  Septuagint  in  Exod.  xx  :  5. 


III. — LEGISLATION    AT    SINAI.  129 

were  called  upon  to  make  their  election  of  him,  and  to 
swear  allegiance  to  him,  which  thej  repeatedly  did.  In 
this  respect  the  Hebrew,  especially  during  the  time  of 
the  Judges,  differed  from  all  other  fonns  of  government. 
It  was  not  a  republic,  although  without  a  human  mon- 
arch, not  an  aristocracy,  although  executed  by  judges 
and  heads  of  houses ;  but  a  theocracy.  Those  who  ad- 
ministered it  did  so  as  the  ministers  of  King  Jehovah. 
If  any  credit  is  to  be  given  to  the  voice  of  primeval  fa- 
ble, even  when  uniform,  such  was  the  original  govern- 
ment for  all  mankind  ;  and  the  same  apostasy  which 
multiplied  gods,  multiplied  also  kings,  which  men  as- 
sumed to  be  as  claiming  descent  from  God.  If  so, 
then  the  Hebrew  poHty,  in  this,  as  in  some  other  re- 
spects, was  a  revival,  on  behalf  of  a  chosen  nation, 
placed  in  more  guarded  circumstances,  of  what  had 
primarily  been  instituted  for  the  whole  race.  And  if 
so  then  the  establishment  of  the  kingdom  of  the  Messiah 
over  all  the  earth,  will  be  the  restoration  of  that  divine 
government,  which  was  the  earliest  of  all,  in  which 
man  was  originally  constituted  to  live  in  the  capacity 
of  minister  to  God  as  his  immediate  king.  If  not  so, 
then  it  was  a  peculiar  relation,  in  w^hich  the  ruler  of 
aU  chose  to  stand  to  the  Hebrew  people,  as  a  priest  na- 
tion. For  it  is  the  only  instance  of  the  kind  recorded 
within  the  period  of  history. 

Consistently,  the  constitution  and  laws  of  the 
nation  were  not  framed  by  the  people,  nor  by  their 
princes  and  elders,  nor  presented  to  them  as  the  work 
of  their  leader,  but  issued  as  the  revelation  of  their 
invisible  king. 


130  COMPARATIVE   RELIGION. 

By  a  condescension  to  the  crude  notions  and  feeble 
apprehension  of  the  people,  who  were  to  be  elevated 
and  purified,  certain  sensible  objects  were  adopted  to 
signify  the  divine  presence.  In  the  main  such  things 
were  chosen  as  were  venerable  in  their  eyes.  Only 
nothing  was  employed  as  a  likeness  of  God.  The 
people  were  to  be  educated  to  the  worship  of  the  one 
invisible  Jehovah,  but  the  beginning  had  to  be  made 
from  habits  of  thought  contracted  in  the  land  of  their 
late  residence.  Accordingly  a  tabernacle  was  erected, 
in  its  great  outlines  similar  to  the  temple  structures 
of  Egypt  and  combining  the  character  of  a  temple  and 
a  palace.  In  it  was  a  throne,  which  was  also  the  ark 
of  the  covenant,  a  table  whereon  were  set  twelve 
loaves  of  bread,  and  renewed  every  Sabbath  day ;  and 
near  was  the  altar  of  incense,  and  a  superb  candela- 
brum all  made  of  or  overlaid  with  the  purest  gold. 
The  structure,  on  account  of  the  migratory  life  which 
the  people  led  in  the  wilderness,  was  composed  of 
movable  materials;  but  all  of  the  finest  quality, 
acacia  wood  overlaid  with  gold,  and  when  set  up, 
the  whole  was  hung  with  rich  drapery.  The  interior 
consisted  of  two  apartments,  the  holy  place,  and  the 
most  holy  place ;  the  former  being  twenty  cubits  long 
by  ten  wide  and  ten  high,  the  latter  ten  cubits  in  all 
its  dimensions.  It  was  inclosed  in  a  quadrangular 
court,  one  hundred  cubits  long  by  fifty  broad.  A 
brazen  altar  for  sacrifice,  and  a  vast  basin  of  the  same 
metal  for  ablutions  of  the  priests,  stood  within  the 
sacred  inclosure,  and  in  front  of  the  tabernacle. 

In  the  tabernacle  the  most  sacred  object  was  an 


ni. LEGISLATION   AT    SINAI.  131 

ark  or  chest,  within  which  were  deposited  the  tables 
of  the  moral  law,  and  by  its  side  a  golden  vase  con- 
taining a  quantity  of  manna,  Aaron's  rod,  aod,  after 
the  last  instructions  of  Moses,  a  copy  of  the  book  of 
the  law. 

"Within  the  court,  the  people,  with  the  ministry  of 
the  priests,  presented  themselves,  and  conducted  those 
parts  of  the  worship  which  belonged  to  them.  It  was 
the  court  of  their  king.  To  the  sanctuary  Tvere  ad- 
mitted only  his  ministers,  and  into  the  holiest  place 
the  high  priest  only  once  a  year  with  blood  of  sacrifice. 

All  the  divisions  of  the  tabernacle,  in  the  order  de- 
scribed, and  almost  the  proportions,  are  to  be  found  in 
the  ground  plans,  and  existing  ruins  of  ancient  Egyp- 
tian structures ;  the  great  court  or  temeiios,  the  altar, 
the  holy  place,  and  in  the  rear  of  that  the  smaller 
apartment,  deemed  the  holiest  of  all.  And  the  same 
parts  and  proportions  are  repeated  in  the  Greek.  The 
style  of  architecture  is  different  in  each  from  the  rest, 
but  they  are  all  on  the  same  general  plan.  In  like 
manner,  some  of  the  furniture  of  the  Hebrew  taberna- 
cle corresponded  to  what  the  Hebrew  people  were  al- 
ready accustomed  to  regard  as  sacred  to  religious  uses. 
But  in  one  respect  the  difference  was  great.  In  the 
holiest  place  of  the  tabernacle  the  object  of  ad- 
oration was  not  an  idol.  The  mercy  seat,  or  throne, 
was  unoccupied  by  any  material  form,  Faith  was  re- 
quired to  rest  upon  an  invisible  Grod.  And  as  to  all 
the  materials  employed,  they  were  to  be  filled  with  a 
meaning  drawn  from  that  central  truth. 

It  is  also  mentioned  that  on  the  completion  of  that 


132  COMPAKATIVE   RELIGION. 

edifice,  the  pillar  of  cloud,  wliicli  had  gone  before  them 
frora  the  morning  when  the  people  began  their  march 
from  Egypt,  removed  and  stood  over  it,  and  remained 
"upon  it  thronghout  all  their  journeys  in  the  wilderness. 
The  tabernacle  was  the  prime  object  of  attention  at  all 
times  in  the  camp  of  Israel. 

When  that  structure  was  complete,  Aaron  and  his 
sons  were  solemnly  consecrated  to  the  highest  offices 
of  the  priesthood.  The  ceremonies  of  consecration 
were  performed  for  the  ordinary  priests  now  once  for 
all.  Their  sons  and  descendants  were  held  to  be  born 
in  consecration,  and  w^hen  they  came  of  a  proper  age, 
entered  upon  the  duties  of  office  without  any  ceremony. 
But  the  high  priest  was  always  specially  ordained,  and 
inducted  into  his  office  by  repetition  of  the  anointing 
with  oil,  and  robing  wdth  the  vestments  of  Aaron. 

In  readino^  of  the  eleo^ance  of  the  sacerdotal  vest- 
ments  and  symbolical  decorations,  as  well  as  of  the 
richness  and  style  of  the  tabernacle  and  its  furniture, 
we  are  forcibly  impressed  with  the  great  excellence 
which  the  Hebrew  workmen  had  attained.  All  the 
materials  and  much  of  the  w^orkmanship  were  furnished 
by  the  free-will  offerings  of  the  people.  In  the 
main  the  style  of  those  vestments  was  new,  although 
some  of  the  articles  are  found  among  the  official  deco- 
rations of  the  priests  in  Egy^^t.  "What  figures  consti- 
tuted the  Urim  and  Thummim  we  are  not  informed, 
but  they  are  first  mentioned  in  Scripture  as  already 
known  to  the  Israelites :  and  both  in  name  and  use 
they  corresponded  to  certain  symbols  of  Egyptian 
worship. 


III. LEGISLATION   AT    SINAI.  133 

"When  the  tabernacle  was  complete  and  the  priests 
installed,  the  series  of  sacrifices  began  by  the  issuing 
of  a  supernatural  fire  from  before  the  Lord,  which  con- 
sumed the  offering  upon  the  altar.  Thereafter  daily 
morning  and  evening  was  the  smoke  of  burned  offer- 
ing to  rise  before  the  holy  place.  A  slain  lamb  every 
morning  and  evening  laid  upon  the  altar  was  to  be 
the  daily  service  of  the  nation,  continually.  There 
were  also  various  occasional  sacrifices  appointed,  some 
as  expiatory  and  others  as  expressive  of  thanksgiving. 
Of  the  latter  class  were  the  peace  offerings,  and  of  the 
former  were  burnt  offerings,  sin  offerings  and  tres- 
pass offerings.  The  details  of  their  performance  were 
minutely  prescribed,  both  as  to  what  was  to  be  done 
in  each  kind  of  cases,  and  what  kind  of  person  was  to 
do  it  as  well  as  the  kind  of  victim  and  all  that  was  to 
be  done  with  it.  Some  of  those  services  were  pre- 
scribed for  particular  sins ;  others  were  voluntary,  dic- 
tated by  the  feelings  of  the  person  who  brought  the 
victim.  But  in  all,  the  ceremonial  is  described  with 
equal  minuteness. 

Special  observances  were  now  appointed  for  the 
Sabbath.  That  day  was  to  be  set  apart  entirely  to 
the  service  of  God.  It  wa;s  to  be  a  day  of  rest  from 
all  bodily  work ;  and  was  to  be  celebrated  by  offering 
double  the  number  of  dailj^  sacrifices,  by  putting 
twelve  fresh  loaves  of  shewbread,  and  the  incense  be- 
longing thereto,  on  the  table  in  the  holy  place  of  the 
temple,  and  by  the  assembling  of  the  people  for  the 
public  exercises  of  their  religion.  And  on  that  day 
the  division  of  priests  destined  for  the  weekly   service 


134  COMPARATIVE    RELIGION. 

commenced  their  duties.  It  was  to  be  a  day  of  reli- 
gions enjoyment.  But  it  was  also  to  be  enforced  by 
the  severest  penalties.  Whoever  proceeded  with  his 
ordinary  work  on  that  day  was  to  be  put  to  death. 

The  whole  plan  and  operation  of  the  tabernacle  ser- 
vice as  well  as  the  tabernacle  itself,  and  everything  con- 
nected with  it,  combined  religion  and  civil  government. 
His  religion  was  to  the  Hebrew  the  foundation  of  his 
whole  civil  structure.  To  apostatize  from  the  faith  of 
his  nation  was  also  to  be  guilty  of  high  treason.  Union 
of  regal  with  priestly  office  had  prevailed  under 
the  Hamitic  system,  from  earliest  recorded  times;  but 
the  king  of  the  Hebrews  was  not  a  priest.  He  was 
God, — the  only  God.  Their  constitution  embodied 
much  which  had  been  wrought  out  by  the  experience 
of  their  predecessors ;  but  a  higher  and  purer  spirit 
imbued  it  all,  proceeding  from  the  central  principle 
of  their  dedication  to  the  service  of  Jehovah  as  deposi- 
taries of  his  revelation. 

God  had  hitherto  been  revealed  to  the  Hebrews  as 
the  God  of  Abraham,  Isaac  and  Jacob,  and  by  the 
same  name  under  which  he  was  known  to  their  Ca- 
naanitish  neighbors ;  but  now  the  glorious  nature  of  his 
existence  is  more  fully  set  forth  in  the  proclamation  of 
him  as  Jehovah,  by  whicli  he  was  reverenced  as  the 
king  of  Israel.  But  the  king  of  the  priest  nation  of 
the  world  was  also  declared  the  sovereign  of  all  nations 
and  as  subjecting  all  to  the  same  principles  of  legisla- 
tion. He  was  the  over-all  king,  head  over  all  the  sev- 
eral kings  of  all  the  earth, — the  King  of  kings,  the 
Lord  of  lords. 


in. LEGISLATION    AT    SINAI.  135 

The  people  were  also  taught  that  God  was  jealous 
of  the  worship  which  he  required,  and  would  not  suf- 
fer it  with  impunity  to  be  divided  with  another.  And 
over  and  above  the  demand  of  strict  justice  from  man 
to  man,  they  were  instructed  in  the  most  practical 
manner,  that  every  man  had  a  duty  to  all  the  nation 
of  Israel,  and  the  whole  nation  to  the  individual ;  and 
that  the  eye  of  the  invisible  monarch  was  equally  upon 
the  whole  nation  and  upon  the  humblest  person  in  it, 
discriminating  between  the  obedient  and  disobedient ; 
and  yet,  that  in  the  case  of  national  sins,  the  external 
punishment  would  fall  upon  the  multitude,  including 
many  who  had  no  particular  positive  agency  in  in- 
curring the  guilt. 


CHAPTER  YII. 


SUBSEQUENT   PROGKESS  OF  LEGALISM. 

Religion  as  it  appears  in  the  earliest  scriptures 
was  now  almost  extinct.  And  with  it  had  disappeared 
the  earlier  morality.  The  shocking  cruelty  and  prof- 
ligacy of  Egypt  and  Western  Asia  needed  more  than 
natural  means  of  reform.  Less  information  comes  to 
us  from  other  quarters,  but  it  is  of  the  same  nature. 
In  the  very  existence  of  the  great  reformations  there 
stands  forth  the  best  witness  to  the  fact.  While  those 
reformations  in  their  subsequent  history,  continued  to 
maintain  their  ground,  with  changes  for  the  better  or 
the  worse,  the  idolatrous  religions  from  which  they 
dissented  having,  by  natural  process,  .developed  into 
legal  systems,  held  on  their  course  of  multiplying 
errors  and  sinking  deeper  into  debasing  practices,  until 
Egypt,  Canaan,  India  and  Assyria,  at  the  head  of  their 
respective  style  of  culture,  were  completely  prostrated 
under  sacerdotal  despotism.  China  did  not  sink  into 
such  a  degree  of  polytheism  and  of  idolatry  ;  but  her 
national  patriarchal  religion  became  a  system  of  hollow 
ordinances,  and  her  only  real  religion  a  worship  of 
forefathers.  The  degeneracy  of  the  patriarchal  s^^stem 
in  China  became   a  worship  of  patriarchs.     Thus  in 


I. SUBSEQUENT   PKOGRESS    OF   LEGALISM.  137 

their  respective  careers  of  development  or  permanence 
those  nations  continued  for  ages. 

In  the  legalism  which  had  received  new  definite- 
ness  and  force  from  the  measures  of  reforming  mono- 
theists,  error  had  found  a  new  argument.  More 
authoritatively  than  ever  were  the  rites  of  religious 
service  represented  as  good  works  with  God,  making 
the  worshipper  acceptable,  if  rightly  performed  accord- 
ing to  law.  Importance  was  legally  attached  to  the 
proper  pronunciation  of  every  word  of  the  pra3^ers  and 
hymms  prescribed  for  each  occasion,  the  right  attitudes 
of  body,  the  right  junctures  of  time,  and  so  on,  every- 
thing was  fixed  in  a  sacred  formula,  in  which  the 
slightest  mistake  might  vitiate  the  whole  service. 
Such  became  the  state  of  religion  everywhere,  but 
especially  in  Egypt  and  India,  where  its  ritual  was 
the  most  complex  and  its  law  the  most  imperative. 

A  legal  religion  and  fixed  ritual  worship  determined 
the  principal  elements  of  the  later  scriptures  in  all 
the  great  nations.  In  China,  the  Le-ke,  with  its  rites 
and  ceremonies,  follows  at  some  distance  the  Shoo- 
king ;  in  Persia,  the  liturgy  of  the  Yasna  follows  its 
sacred  hymns  ;  the  Yispered  is  appended  to  the  Yasna  ; 
and  the  legal  institutions  of  the  Yendidad  follow  the 
liturgy.  So  the  liturgical  Yedas  follow  the  Rig-veda, 
the  commentaries  on  them  determine  details,  and  the 
laws  of  Manu  give  recognized  sanction  to  all.  And  in 
Hebrew,  Leviticus,  Numbers,  and  Deuteronomy  suc- 
ceed the  histories  of  Genesis  and  Exodus. 

A  ceremonial  thus  established,  and  a  legal  litera- 
ture connected  with  it,  the  authority  of  the  priest 


138  COMPARATIVE   RELIGION. 

class  was  put  upon  a  firm  footing  above  dependence 
on  the  mere  good  will  of  the  masses.  Its  members 
established  in  a  positive  authority,  acquired  an  almost 
supernatural  power  over  the  less  educated,  by  whom 
they  were  viewed  as  especially  holy,  and  as  having  the 
salvation  of  other  men  in  their  hands.  And  where  the 
ritual  was  most  elaborate,  and  the  sacred  books  most 
exacting  of  minute  compliance,  the  importance  of  the 
priesthood  became  the  greatest.  A  complicated  s.ystem 
of  ceremonies,  recurring  frequentl}^  and  regularly,  in 
pnblic  and  private,  with  a  liturgy  of  prayers  and 
liymns,  demanded  the  whole  attention  of  the  men  set 
apart  to  the  duty  of  conducting  it.  I^ot  only  was  it 
no  longer  practicable  for  every  man  to  perform  for 
himself  all  the  duties  thus  multiplied,  but  it  was  no 
longer  allowable  to  attempt  it.  By  presuming  to  offer 
his  own  sacrifices  after  the  manner  of  his  forefathers, 
man  would  now  incur  a  severe  penalty.  And  this 
added  to  the  fear  of  invalidating  the  service,  by  failing 
to  comply  with  every  minute  particular  aright,  intensi- 
fied the  importance  of  the  sacerdotal  profession.  Like 
every  other  means  of  power,  in  such  a  state  of  the 
world,  the  priesthood  became  hereditary,  and  a  sacer- 
dotal nobility  was  formed,  with  special  privileges,  next 
to  royalty,  and  in  some  cases,  with  the  King  at  its 
head. 

Such  was  the  form  into  which  the  original  patri- 
•archal  cult  of  the  Assyrians,  Babylonians  and  Egyp- 
tians developed.     That  of  India  reached  the  most  com- 
plete sacerdotalism  ;  but  with  the  king  of  a  different 
caste.     In  Israel,  priestly  office  was  hereditary,  but  was 


II. PKOGEESS  OF  REFORMED  LEGALISM.     139 

SO  constituted  that  it  conld  not  become  the  basis  of 
sacerdotal  aristocracy.  The  sons  of  Levi  were  denied 
territorial  possession  with  the  other  tribes,  and  were 
confined  to  forty-eight  cities,  far  apart  and  small,  with 
but  a  trifle  over  three  hundred  acres  attached  to  each, 
and  to  the  perquisites  of  their  ofhce.  So  efi'ectually 
were  those  precautions  establislied,  that  the  Levites 
never  rose  to  any  superiority  of  power,  as  a  tribe,  were 
not  even  counted  as  a  tribe  at  all,  aftei  they  had  been 
set  apart  to  their  literary  and  sacerdotal  duties.  Only 
a  few  families  of  them  were  priests.  The  rest  were 
distributed  throughout  the  nation,  in  literary  and  pro- 
fessional avocations,  and  in  subordinate  offices  assigned 
them  under  the  general  government,  and  in  which  lat- 
ter they  were  under  check  of  the  local  tribal  gov- 
ernments, to  which  they  were  also  a  check  in  being  a 
bond  of  union  for  the  whole.  The  priesthood  was  so 
constituted  that  it  never  could  subordinate  the  nation, 
while  occupying  a  place  in  religion,  and  government 
securing  for  it  the  national  respect. 


II. 

SUBSEQUENT  PROGRESS    OF   REFORMED    LEGALISM. 

All  the  religions  of  the  monotheistic  revival  also 
degenerated  in  course  of  time.  They  went  down  into 
a  superficial  and  superstitious  ritualism,  if  not  into 
polytheism  and  positive  idolatry.  The  Hebrew,  which 
was  essentially  ritual,  had  a  long  struggle  with  the  ten- 
dency of  the  people  to  carry  it  into  superstitious  sym- 


140  COMPARATIVE   RELIGION. 

holism  and  from  that  to  step  into  the  idolatrous  prac- 
tices of  their  neighbors.  Ultimately  in  the  end  of  their 
commonwealth,  under  that  heathenish  proclivity  their 
whole  system  broke  down,  and  the  peculiar  observances 
of  their  religion  were  neglected  so  long  as  to  be  almost 
forgotten  ;  and  they  were  on  the  verge  of  having  their 
features  as  a  separate  people  obliterated.  Only 
through  the  persevering  firmness  of  one  man  in  the 
prophetical  office  were  they  saved  from  that  catastro- 
phe. Samuel  barely  saved  them ;  but  he  transferred 
the  work  which  he  had  done  to  one  who  carried  it  to 
completion.  And  thereby  while  the  Iranian  and  Chi- 
nese monotheistic  interests  continued  to  drag  on  their 
degenerating  history,  that  of  the  Hebrews  was  revived 
to  a  new  activity  and  with  some  new  features  by  King 
David. 

It  was  in  the  days  of  the  Judges  that  the  peculiar 
features  of  the  Mosaic  polity  were  most  consistently 
exhibited.  And  the  government  of  that  period  was 
designed  to  be  perpetual  among  them,  had  they  re- 
mained faithful  to  its  conditions.  But  that  they  did 
not,  except  by  intervals.  And  at  length  about  three 
hundred  and  fifty  years  after  the  conquest  of  Canaan, 
they  sank  into  a  state  of  civil  and  ecclesiastical  disorder 
and  helplessness.  Under  the  reign  of  David  the  wor- 
ship of  Jehovah,  as  instituted  at  Sinai,  was  rescued 
from  the  ruin  into  which  it  had  fallen,  and  the  confu- 
sion of  heathenism  with  which  it  had  been  mingled, 
and  elevated  to  a  new  period  of  purity  and  prosperity. 
It  also  received  a  fuller  development  of  some  of  its  ele- 
ments, viz.,  fuller  organization  of  the  serving  priest- 


n. PROGRESS  OF  REFORMED  LEGALISM.     141 

hood  ;  second,  great  expansion  of  the  musical  part  of 
the  service ;  third,  the  regular  establishment  of  the 
service  in  psalms ;  fourth,  the  tenderer  attributes  of 
Godhead  are  more  fully  unfolded  ;  and  fifthly,  farther 
expansion  and  greater  definiteness  of  the  promise,  and 
fuller  and  clearer  declaration  of  the  character  of  the 
Messiah  and  of  his  reign.  All  the  attributes  of  God- 
head set  forth  in  the  Psalms  are  taught  or  implied  in 
the  writings  of  Moses,  but  in  the  Psalms  they  are 
brought  out  more  fully,  dwelt  upon  and  commended. 
The  mercy  of  God  is  revealed  in  Moses,  but  then  it 
was  especially  important  to  urge  the  terrors  of  his  law. 
For  the  institution  of  the  law  was  the  work  of  Moses. 
That  law  is  the  theme  to  which  David  continually  re- 
curs ;  it  is  his  meditation  all  the  day,  and  God  s  severity 
against  the  violators  of  his  law  is  abundantly  declared  ; 
but  it  is  on  the  mercy  of  God  that  he  expands  more 
largely  than  his  predecessor.  In  general,  the  severer 
aspects  of  Deity  are  prominent  in  Moses  ;  the  tenderer 
in  David,  although  all  are  presented  by  both.  Put  in 
David  there  is  a  great  advance  in  bringing  out  the  re- 
lations of  God  to  the  believer  as  a  friend  and  protec- 
tor :  and  some  things  appear  in  his  writings  touching 
the  Messiah  for  the  first  time  : — His  Sonship  in  God- 
head, his  Kingship  in  Israel,  and  thence  to  the  utter- 
most parts  of  the  earth,  and  his  descent  according  to 
the  fiesh  in  the  line  of  David.  There  is  more  light 
and  joy  also  in  the  religion  of  the  Psalms  than  in  that 
of  the  law,  and  less  dependence  upon  the  ceremonial. 

Solomon  adorned  that  religion  with  the  splendors 
of  art ;  but  he  also  darkened  it  with  the  questions  of 


142  COMPAEATIVE    RELIGION. 

pliilosopliY,  and  in  his  later  years  led  it  far  on  the 
career  of  degeneracy,  which  the  division  of  the  king- 
dom, npon  his  death,  accelerated.  The  history  of 
Hebrew  religion  under  the  divided  monarchy  is  a  nar- 
rative of  decline  alternating  with  partial  reformations, 
until  in  the  ^Northern  kingdom  its  characteristics  dis- 
appear, and  the  nation  is  scattered  among  the  heathen, 
and  in  the  southern  kingdom  the  observation  of  it  in 
purity  is  confined  to  a  few ;  and  they  are  saved  from 
utter  submersion  by  being  carried  into  captivity  by  a 
monarch  who  becomes  their  protector.  There,  in  a 
foreign  land,  they  listen  more  thoughtfully  to  their 
law,  to  the  songs  of  their  temple  service,  and  the 
lessons  of  their  prophets,  and  learn  better  to  appre- 
hend the  superior  excellence  of  the  religion  of  their 
fathers,  and  the  baseness  of  the  folly  through  which 
the  nation  had  lost  all  the  blessings  it  was  designed  to 
secure.  Appointed  there  to  learn  a  lesson  of  the 
fruits  of  polytheism  and  idolatry  in  unmitigated  ma- 
turity, which  they  never  again  forgot,  they  became 
more  consistent  monotheists  than  their  nation  had 
ever  been  in  the  days  of  its  prosperity.  The  steps  of 
decline  from  the  religion  delivered  at  Sinai  were : 

I.  In  keeping  up  in  some  families,  perhaps  many, 
the  worship  of  the  idols  of  Laban.  Joshua  24  :  2,  14, 
15.  That  was  connected,  it  would  seem,  with  the 
worship  in  some  quarters,  of  the  brazen  serpent  made 
by  Moses.  These  errors  the  last  counsels  of  Joshua 
had  some  effect  in  checking. 

II.  But  the  next  generation  took  a  step  fur- 
ther in  worshipping   different   gods  under   the  name 


n. PROGRESS  OF  REFORMED  LEGALISM.     143 

of  Baal,  that  is,  Lord,  and  Ashtoreth,  gods  of  their 
Canaanitish  neighbors,  of  tlie  people  whom  they 
had  not  driven  out,  and  with  whom,  on  the  contrary, 
many  of  them  intermarried.  That  connection  was  a 
constant  temptation,  and  acted  upon  the  people  more 
or  less  through  all  their  national  history.  Mosaisra 
was  ritual.  It  needed  only  to  change  its  object  to 
become  idolatrous.  To  sanctify  a  grove  to  Jehovah 
was  naturally  thought  to  be  a  good  work.  To  set  up 
an  image  in  it  was  only  to  help  devotion.  But  when 
the  eye.  was  familiar  with  that  sight,  it  was  easy  to  sub- 
stitute the  image  of  another  god,  to  whose  worship  a 
wife,  or  some  pious  friend,  from  among  the  Canaanites 
was  devoted.  And  reforming  kings  seldom  went  the 
length  of  removing  the  heretical  places  of  worship  in 
the  groves.  There  was  always  that  starting-point  for 
error. 

III.  And  finally,  when  kings,  priests  and  prophets 
failed  to  abstain  from  the  same  error,  the  whole  nation 
went  headlong  into  heathenism ;  and  only  a  remnant 
was  saved. 

Meanwhile  among  the  few  who  were  faithful  to 
the  worship  of  Jehovah,  another,  and  an  inverse  pro- 
cess had  been  going  forward.  Accompanying  the 
strictness  of  Mosaism  there  was  from  the  first  a  sys- 
tem of  literary  instruction  appointed  for  the  whole 
people.  In  that,  they  were  instructed  in  what  was 
necessary  to  the  ritual  observance  of  their  religion,  but 
also  in  the  meaning  of  it,  upon  the  whole,  and  that 
such  offering  and  ceremonies  signified  repentance, 
others  signified  devotion,  others,  thankfulness,  others 


144  COMPAKATIVE   EELIGION. 

atonement,  and  so  on,  and  all  was  to  be  performed  in 
view  of  a  spiritual  acceptance  bj  a  spiritual  God. 

This  spiritual  and  intellectual  element  was  that 
which  the  heretics  always  neglected.  But  it  was  that 
to  which  the  progress  of  the  Hebrew  religion  belonged. 
In  the  time  of  Samuel  it  grew  into  the  societies  or 
schools  of  the  prophets,  whose  whole  work  was  con- 
cerned with  the  literary  and  spiritual  elements  of 
religion. 

A  perfect  symmetry  of  these  two  existed  under 
David,  both  being  developed  to  a  degree  beyond  anj 
previous  example. 

But  the  tendency  among  heretical  Jews  always 
was  to  give  preponderance  to  the  formal  and  material. 
The  prophets  who  came  after  expressed  their  message 
chiefly  in  opposing  that  tendency.  In  course  of  time 
they  urge  the  superior  importance  of  the  spiritual  to 
the  degree  of  vilifying  the  ritual,  and  expressing  the 
condemnation  of  God  upon  it  when  separate  from  its 
spiritual  import. 

It  was  to  the  party  which  followed  the  prophets 
that  the  faithful  remnant  in  Babylon  belonged.  And 
prophets  continued  to  be  their  instructors  until  after 
the  restoration. 

Accordingly  it  was  that  part  of  the  Hebrew  people 
which  held  to  the  unfolding  spirituality  of  their  reli- 
gion which  alone  was  saved  out  of  the  general  wreck. 
That  some  of  their  descendants  fell  into  another  style 
of  error  does  not  concern  us  at  this  point.  The  heret- 
ical party  sank  out  of  notice  of  Hebrew  scriptures 
for  a  reason  obvious  upon  the  face  of  things ;  namely, 


n. PROGRESS  OF  REFORMED  LEGALISM.     145 

that  they  were  the  neglecters  of  intellectual  and  spirit- 
ual instruction ;  but  they  also  ceased  to  be  of  impor- 
tance in  the  history  of  Hebrew  religion  ;  and  blend- 
ing with  heathen,  lost  their  Hebrew  identity.  Subse- 
quent history  of  their  religion  is  only  in  the  line  of 
those  who  followed  its  spiritual  development. 
7 


CHAPTER  YIII. 

PROGRESS  OF  AVESTAN  LEGALISM. 

In  the  history  of  the  Avestan  religion  certain 
stages  of  progress  are  marked  by  the  succession  of  its 
sacred  books,  which  is  determined  not  by  their  arrange- 
ment in  the  canon,  but  by  the  state  of  the  language 
in  which  they  are  respectively  written,  and  by  their  in- 
trinsic relations  to  each  other. 

First  in  order  are  the  Gathas;  because  theirs  is 
the  most  archaic  diction  ;  and  because  they  were  neces- 
sary to  the  very  existence  of  the  other  books.  Their 
bearing  upon  the  principal  topics  of  religion  has  been 
already  stated, — their  doctrine  of  one  solo  personal 
God,  eternal,  invisible,  infinite,  the  Creator  and  Kuler 
of  all ;  of  subordinate  angelic  beings  ;  of  the  origin  of 
evil  in  the  perversion  of  the  moral  faculties  first  on  the 
part  of  a  higher  intelligence,  and  then  through  his  cor- 
rupting influence,  extended  to  man  ;  its  worship,  con- 
sisting of  prayer,  in  song,  consecrated  oflTerings,  and 
the  observation  of  purity  in  thought,  purity  in  words, 
and  purity  in  life.  The  Gathas  were  themselves  the 
prayers,  the  adorations,  and  supplications  provided  for 
the  utterance  of  devotion, — the  earliest  that  we  know 
of  Avestanism. 


n. — LITURGICAL   SCKIPTUEE8.  147 


II. 


LITUKGICAL    SCRIPTURES. 

The  next  stage  is  that  which  presents  the  matured 
forms  of  a  liturgy,  founded  upon  the  Gathas,  enjoining 
and  directing  the  use  of  them  in  worship.  Of  that 
service  the  Vispered  and  Yasna  contain  the  whole  form 
and  substance.  The  older  and  principal  part  is  the 
Yasna,  in  which  the  Gathas  are  bound  up.  The  Yis- 
pered  is  a  smaller  liturgical  book  of  later  production. 

Avestanisni  had  no  sacrifice,  in  the  Hebrew  sense 
of  that  observance,  much  less  in  the  Hindu  sense  of  it, 
as  food  and  drink  of  the  god  to  whom  it  was  offered ; 
but  only  a  consecrated  festival,  in  which  the  victim 
was  presented  before  the  sacred  fire,  and  then  eaten 
wholly  by  the  worshipper,  with  his  friends  and  the 
priests. 

The  Yasna,  in  its  liturgical  parts,  is  prose ;  in  its 
other  parts,  the  more  spiritually  devotional,  it  is  verse, 
consisting  chiefly  of  the  Gathas. 

All  these  parts  of  the  canon  now  mentioned  were 
recited,  for  the  most  part,  by  the  priests  alone,  during 
the  performance  of  certain  religious  ceremonies,  to 
which  the  liturgy  referred.  Those  ceremonies  were, 
first,  consecration  of  the  holy  water;  second,  consecra- 
tion of  the  Baresma,  a  bundle  of  twigs  taken  from  the 
date,  tamarisk  or  pomegranate ;  third,  the  preparation 
and  consecration  of  the  Haoma,  or  inspiring  liquor — 
the  Soma  of  the  Hindus  ;  and  fourth,  offering  of  the 
Draones,  or  sacred  cakes,  with  pieces  of  cooked  meat 


148  COMPAEATIVE  KELIGION, 

on  them,  which,  after  certain  prayers,  were  eaten  by 
the  priests. 

Accordingly,  the  most  important  duty  of  priests 
was  recitation  of  the  sacred  books  in  the  order,  not  of 
their  chronoloirv,  but  of  their  lituro^ical  arrans^ement 
in  the  Yendidad-Sades.  Worship  commenced  with  in- 
vocations to  Ahura-mazda,  and  all  good  spirits.  Then 
followed  the  preparation  of  the  holy  water,  Baresma, 
Haoma,  etc.,  then  the  offering  of  these  things  to  the 
spirits,  the  eating  of  the  Draunes,  and  drinking  of  the 
Haoma  by  the  priests,  during  which  more  prayers  were 
recited,  praises  of  Haoma,  etc.  The  Gathas  were  re- 
cited alternately  with  passages  of  the  Yendidad.  After 
the  Gathas  followed  other  prayers  with  doxologies. 

This  ritual  in  its  primary  elements  most  probably 
commenced  with  the  practice  of  Zarathnstra  himself; 
but  in  its  completeness  could  not  have  come  into  exist- 
ence imtil  after  the  canon  of  their  scripture  was  full. 
For  it  was  the  duty  of  the  priests  to  recite  tlie  whole 
of  the  sacred  writings  every  twenty-four  hours,  the 
greater  part  of  them  in  the  night.  They  had  also  other 
duties,  such  as  to  watch  and  tend  the  sacred  lire,  kept 
continually  burning. 

The  Yendidad  or  book  of  law,  is  chiefly  concerned 
with  rules  of  ceremonial  purity.  It  commences  with 
a  chapter  on  creation,  followed  by  one  on  the  happy 
reign  of  Yima,  both  of  which,  as  well  as  the  twenty- 
first  chapter, — a  relic  of  old  Persian  star  worship,  are 
thought  to  be  disconnected  fragments  of  some  more 
ancient  book  now  lost.  They  are  not  legal.  Yima 
declined  being  a  lawgiver,  and  preferred  to  be  a  bless- 


II. LITURGICAL    SCRIPTURES.  149 

ing,  with  less  formality.  The  third  Fargard,  or  chap- 
ter, enters  on  the  subject  of  ceremonial  purity,  with  a 
statement  of  the  five  things  most  pleasing,  and 
the  five  most  displeasing  to  earth.  The  former 
have  reference  to  where  a  holy  man  walks ;  that  a 
holy  man  should  build  himself  a  habitation,  have  a 
wife  and  children,  good  flocks,  fire  and  all  that  is  necessa- 
ry for  life,  water  for  dry  land,  and  draining  for  land  too 
moist.  The  five  things  most  displeasing  are  the  con- 
ception of  the  Arezura,  when  the  Daevas,  with  the 
Drujas  come  to  it,  out  of  hell,  and  the  rest  are  cases  of 
defilement  by  dead  bodies  of  men  and  dogs,  and  the 
holes  of  the  beasts  created  by  Anra-mainyus. 

Raising  of  cattle  and  cultivation  of  the  soil  are 
recommended  with  religious  sanction. 

"He  Avho  cultivates  the  fruits  of  the  field,  culti- 
vates purity."" 

The  country  inhabited  by  the  ancient  Aryan  peo- 
ple must  have  been  cold ;  fire  is  mentioned  as  one  of 
the  most  valued  possessions. 

Then  follow  several  chapters  of  ceremonial  legal 
enactments,  defining  faults  and  assigning  punish- 
ments ;  touching  un cleanness,  occasioned  by  contact 
with  dead  bodies,  and  the  means  of  removiug  it ;  a 
scale  of  prices  to  be  paid  to  the  priest,  who  has  ofiicia- 
ted  in  the  ceremonies ;  and  punishment  for  those  who 
have  officiated  without  proper  authority ;  the  purify- 
ing of  dwellings,  of  fire,  of  water,  of  earth,  and  even 
of  the  sun,  moon  and  stars. 

The  thirteenth  Fargard  contains  laws  for  the  pro- 

*   Vendidad  iii.  99. 


160  COMPARATIVE    EELIGION. 

tection  of  dogs,  the  most  serviceable  animal  to  a  pas- 
toral people,  and  teaches  the  future  existence  of  the 
spirits  of  dogs.  In  several  succeeding  chapters  the 
subject  is  continued,  and  followed  by  laws  for  the 
proper  treatment  of  women.  Eules  are  laid  down  for 
cutting  of  hair,  paring  of  nails,  and  kindred  details  of 
personal  cleanliness.  The  nineteenth  Fargard  recounts 
the  rebellion  of  the  evil  spirits  against  Zarathustra. 
They  seek  to  kill  him.  He  defeats  them.  Anra- 
mainyus  tempts  him  to  curse  the  Mazdean  law.  He 
resists ;  and  learns  how  to  protect  men  and  women 
from  the  Spirits  of  evil,  by  praising  the  divine  law. 
and  the  heavenly  powers.  The  twentieth  Fargard  is 
an  account  of  Thrita,  the  iirst  physician ;  and  the 
twenty- second,  which  is  the  last,  is  of  sickness  and 
healing. 

Thus  the  Yendidad  is  a  book  of  ceremonial  law. 
Its  most  minute  details,  like  the  other  Avestan  books, 
are  ostensibly  revealed  by  Ahura-mazda,  in  responso 
to  the  inquiries  of  Zarathustra. 

As  these  old  scriptures  were  to  be  recited  princi- 
pally by  the  priests,  so  the  Khorda-Avesta  was  intend- 
ed for  the  laity,  and  all  their  daily  prayers  are  con- 
tained in  it.  Of  those  the  greater  number  are  in  the 
language  of  the  other  liturgical  books,  not  unfrequently 
consisting  of  extracts  from  different  chapters  of  the 
Yasna  ;  but  several  including  Patets,  that  is,  confes- 
sional prayers,  are  written  in  Parsee,  and  belong,  in 
their  present  shape,  at  least,  to  a  comparatively  mod- 
ern period.  They  bear  internal  marks  also  of  a  later 
.  date.     For  example,  the  name  of  God,  as  it  appears  in 


II. LITURGICAL    SCRIPTURES.  151 

them,  is  not  Ahura-mazda,  but  tlie  much  later  abbre- 
viated Ormazd  ;  and  their  adoration  of  Mithra,  Sra- 
osha,  and  some  other  mythical  beings,  approaches  to 
polytheism.  Those  great  angels  are  not  put  on  an 
equality  with  Ormazd,  yet  attributes  of  deity  are 
ascribed  to  them. 

In  all  the  ancient  scriptures,  Zarathustra  is  the 
prophet,  the  person  to  whom  the  revelations  are  made; 
but  in  some  of  the  earlier  he  speaks  of  himself,  and  in 
the  later  is  mentioned  in  the  third  person.  The  in- 
feriority of  all  that  second  class  of  passages  in  point  of 
spirituality  cannot  escape  the  notice  of  any  reader. 

In  the  Yasna  adorations  are  oifered  to  Sraosha, 
some  parts  o£  which  are  quoted  in  the  Khorda-Avesta ; 
and  so  in  regard  to  the  Fravashis ;  but  all  these  praises 
are  more  extended,  and  more  of  the  nature  of  god- 
worship  in  the  later  book. 

Invocations  and  adoration  are  also  addressed  to 
water,  to  wisdom,  to  Haoma,  to  the  Manthra,  that  is 
to  the  inspired  hymn,  to  kingly  Majesty,  to  the  Ma- 
jesty of  the  Aryan  regions ;  and  the  Gathas  one  by 
one,  are  almost  personified  as  objects  of  praise. 

In  the  Khorda-Avesta  there  are  also  private  pray- 
ers for  special  occasions,  for  certain  classes  of  persons, 
prayers  before  and  after  eating,  and  confessions  of 
faith.  "I  confess  myself  a  Mazdayasnian,  a  disciple 
of  Zarathustra,  an  opponent  of  the  Daevas,  a  worship- 
per of  Ahura,"  is  the  substantial  part  of  the  Avestan 
confession,  to  whatever  divine  being  the  adoration  is 
offered. 

Thus  to  the  latest   of  their  sacred  scriptures,  al- 


152  COMPARATIVE    RELIGION. 

though  a  process  of  mythologizing  was  going  on,  and 
their  worship  was  stiftening  into  forms,  and  losing 
in  spirituality,  the  followers  of  Zarathustra  were  in 
reality  still  monotheists,  the  adoration  they  pay  to 
inferior  divine  beings  never  goes  to  the  length  of 
detracting  from  Ahura-mazda,  whose  incomparable 
superiority  is  always  asserted  as  often  as  he  is  named. 

Anra-mainyus,  in  the  ancient  hymns,  appears  as 
the  name  of  a  moral  principle ;  in  the  liturgical  books 
his  personality  is  fully  determined.  A  similar  change 
in  the  same  interval  has  passed  upon  some  other  moral 
abstractions,  both  good  and  bad.  A  number  of  evil 
spirits  are  conceived  of  as  the  followers  of  Anra-main- 
yus, and  seldom  called  by  distinct  names,  but  classed 
as  Daevas.  Anra-mainyus  appears  also  as  a  creator, 
but  only  of  means  to  the  end  of  marring,  perverting 
or  destroying  the  good  creatures  of  Ahura-mazda. 
He  is  served  by  a  retinue  of  demons,  of  his  own  crea- 
ting, as  Ahura-mazda  by  good  angels. 

Avestanism,  in  the  first  instance,  did  not  teach  the 
co-existence  of  sovereign  powers  of  good  and  evil, — a 
dualism  of  moral  authorities  ;  but  after  the  elevation 
of  Anra-mainyus  to  be  the  prince  of  evil,  over  against 
the  holy  creator,  it  gradually  assumed  that  type ;  while 
the  monotheistic  idea  asserted  itself  in  maintaining  the 
superiority  and  final  victory  of  Ahura-mazda,  and 
sometimes  in  a  dark  hint  of  a  greater  Deity,  who 
created  them  both. 

Idolatry  never  made  much  progress  among  the 
followers  of  Zarathustra.  Although  they  may  be  said 
to  have  gone  the  length  of  idolizing  their  rites  and 


II. — LITUEGICAL    SCEIPTURES.  153 

ceremonies,  and  their  mental  personifications;  no 
images  were  ever  used  of  Ahnra-mazda,  or  of  Anra- 
mainjns,  or  of  the  angels.  But  the  emblem  of  Ahura- 
mazda  was  pure  flame,  immortal  Yohumano,  the 
good  mind.* 

In  these  books  we  also  find  the  doctrine  of  immor- 
tality of  the  human  soul,  and  the  existence  of  guardian 
angels  (Fravashis)  over  every  individual  life.  They 
also  teach  that  immediately  after  death  the  souls  of 
men,  both  good  and  bad,  proceed  together,  by  an  ap- 
pointed path,  to  the  Bridge  between  earth  and  heaven, 
along  which  the  pious  alone  could  pass  with  safety, 
while  the  wicked  fell  from  it  into  the  gulf  below, 
w4iere  they  found  themselves  in  the  place  of  punish- 
ment. 

The  Avestan  religion  began  its  history  at  the  point 
where  the  people  among  w^hom  it  arose,  were  changing 
from  the  pastoral  to  the  agricultural  style  of  liv- 
ing, which  change  it  as  decidedly  advanced  as  did  the 
Mosaic  the  same  change  among  the  Hebrew  people. 
Armaiti,  the  guardian  angel  of  earth,  promoted  the 
culture  of  the  soil,  her  favor  was  anxiously  solicited  to 
bless  the  labors  of  the  husbandman,  and  to  convert  to 
that  occupation  those  who  otherwise  were  disposed  to 
the  nomadic  habits  of  their  forefathers.  And  Yayu, 
the  spirit  of  the  power  of  the  air,  was  addressed  with 
corresponding  honors. 

Agni,  (fire)  and  Soma,  (intoxication)  deities  in  the 

*  For  all  this  section  see  Bleeck's  translation  of  Spiegel's 
Avesta,  with  prefaces  and  notes.  Also  Eichhoflf,  in  the  French 
Bibliotheque  Orientale,  vol.  ii.     Preface. 


154  COMPARATIVE   RELIGION. 

Yedic  religion,  were  as  such  rejected  from  the  Aves- 
tan.  Fire  was  held  sacred,  as  a  symbol  of  God,  and 
before  it  were  their  so-called  sacrifices  presented,  but 
only  as  a  material  agent,  not  as  a  divine  power,  not  as  an 
object  of  worsliip.  The  Soma  worship,  w^hich  formed 
a  main  element  of  the  old  Aryan  religion,  and  was 
retained  in  Brahmanism,  was  at  first  altogether  reject- 
ed by  the  author  of  the  Avestan  creed.*  A  ceremony 
which  implied  that  intoxication  was  an  acceptable  ele- 
ment of  worship,  seems  to  have  been  revolting  to  him. 
But  he  failed  wholly  to  wean  his  followers  from  the 
favorite  Soma  festival,  and  could  only  put  a  restraint 
upon  it,  consistently  with  his  exalted  idea  of  God.  Un- 
der the  Zeud  form  Haoma,  it  continued  to  be  an  element 
in  Avestan  worsliip.  Indra  a  Yedic  god  was  retained 
in  the  Avesta,  as  second  in  the  government  of  evil, 
the  powerful  demon  of  storms,  of  the  thunderbolt,  and 
of  war.  And  in  general,  the  objects  of  Yedic  worship  as 
far  as  retained  in  the  Avesta,  are  retained  as  evil  spirits. 
In  the  changes  to  which  it  had  submitted,  the  Avestan 
religion  maintained  a  consistent  opposition  to  the 
Brahmanical. 


III. 

MAOISM. 

"When  Aryans  migrated  towards  the  west,  and  ex- 
tended their  settlements  into  the  countries  south  and 
west  of  the  Caspian  Sea,  they  came  into  contact  with 
a  Scythian  people,  whose  religion,  importantly  diflfer- 

*Compare  the  Gathas. 


III. MAGISM.  155 

ent  from  their  own,  resembled  it,  on  some  points,  far 
enough  to  establish  an  affinity  with  it,  and  in  course 
of  time  a  corrupting  influence  over  it.  That  Scythian 
religion  was  purely  sacerdotal.  Xo  man  had  a  right 
to  put  his  hand  to  its  observances  save  the  Magi,  who 
were  its  hereditary  priests,  and  who  used  all  their  arts 
to  propagate  and  establish  its  practices.  Its  wor- 
ship was  paid  to  the  elements  of  nature,  not  as  symbol- 
ical of  a  higher  Being,  nor  as  manifestations  of  his  at- 
tributes, but  in  themselves.  Earth,  air,  water  and  fire 
were  the  immediate  and  ultimate  objects  of  adoration. 
But  a  special  veneration  was  paid  to  fire,  for  the  wor- 
ship of  which  altars  were  erected  on  high  places  all 
over  the  country.  On  these  altars  the  sacred  fire, 
originally  kindled  by  miraculous  agency,  was  kept 
always  burning.  'No  temple  enclosed  tlie  w^orship, 
which  was  conducted  in  the  open  air.  The  holy  air 
was  the  temple.  Sacrifice  was  offered  to  the  fire.  But 
not  more  than  a  small  portion  of  the  fat  of  the  victim 
was  burned.  Pertaining  to  that  ceremony  were  many 
minute  observances  which  none  but  the  Mas^i  could 
perform. 

Sacrifices  were  also  offered  to  rivers,  lakes  and 
springs.  The  victim  was  slain  beside  the  divine 
object  and  offered  to  it,  but  no  drop  of  tlie  blood 
was  permitted  to  defile  the  holy  element. 

Earth  and  air,  being  also  holy,  imposed  many  in- 
conveniences upon  consistent  Magians.  Especially  in 
the  disposal  of  the  bodies  of  their  dead,  they  felt  con- 
strained by  their  religion  to  do  violence  to  natural  hu- 
man feeling.     A  dead  body  was  held  to  be  unclean. 


156  COMPARATIVE   RELIGION. 

It  sliould  not  be  buried.  For  that  would  defile  the 
earth.  It  must  not  be  sunk  in  water.  For  that 
would  desecrate  another  holy  element.  And  it  must 
not  be  burned.  For  that  would  offend  the  holiest  of 
all.  Round  towers  of  great  elevation,  without  doors 
or  windows,  were  constructed  with  iron  bars  crossing 
them  at  the  top.  Ascending  on  the  outside  by  ladders, 
the  Magians  deposited  theij*  dead  upon  those  iron  bars. 
Birds  of  prey  immediately  descended  upon  the  corpses, 
and  when  they  had  devoured  the  flesh,  the  bones 
fell  through  the  tars  to  the  bottom  of  the  tower. 

This  revolting  and  inhuman  practice,  many  of  the 
Aryans,  who  otherwise  fell  in  with  the  Magian  religion, 
rejected.  Instead  of  it  they  preferred  to  envelope  the 
bodies  of  their  dead  in  wax  and  deposit  them  in  the 
earth.  The  coating  of  wax  it  was  presumed  would  de- 
fend the  earth  from  pollution.  And  tlie  Magian  priests, 
not  to  be  too  severe  with  their  valuable  converts,  al- 
lowed the  plea. 

When  the  Zoroastrians  first  came  among  the  Scyth- 
ians of  Media,  they  found  the  Magi,  as  a  priest-class, 
already  fully  organized  and  in  authority.  Their  con- 
trol over  the  ordinances  of  religion  was  absolute.  'No 
person  could  acceptably  conduct  any  part  of  worship 
but  through  their  ministration.  They  were  the  priests 
and  mediators  between  men  and  God.  It  was  by 
them  that  victims  for  sacrifice  were  prepared  and  slain, 
the  proper  rites  were  observed,  and  the  hymns  and 
prayers  and  incantations  were  recited.  They  were 
also  the  prophets  who  ascertained  and  made  known 
the  will  of  God.     They  explained  omens,  and  inter- 


III. — MAOISM.  157 

preted  dreams.  In  their  hands  the  Barsom  (Baresma,) 
was  a  mystic  instrument  of  incantation  and  prophecy, 
and  indispensable  in  every  sacrificial  ceremony.  Some- 
times the  rods  of  which  it  consisted  were  used  singly, 
but  a  mysterious  power  was  thought  to  reside  in  the 
whole  when  bound  up  in  a  bundle.  It  was  used  in  the 
Avestan  religion  ;  but  without  such  superstitious  pow- 
ers being  attributed  to  it.  Another  sacred  implement 
of  the  Aryans,  subsequently  adopted  by  the  Magi,  was 
that  for  the  killing  of  bad  animals. 

The  sacerdotal  style  and  vestments  of  the  Magi 
were  imposing.  Arrayed  in  white  robes,  and  wearing 
tall  felt  hats,  with  lappets  at  the  sides,  which  concealed 
the  jaw  and  lower  part  of  the  face  with  the  lips,  "  each 
with  his  Barsom  in  his  hand,  they  marched  in  pro- 
cession "  to  their  fire-altars,  and  standing  around  them 
performed  the  magical  incantations.  The  ignorant 
populace  looked  on  w^th  superstitious  awe,  and  kings 
and  princes  recognized  their  supernatural  claims,  and 
consulted  them  as  oracles. 

In  this  religion  there  was  much  to  remind  the 
A\^estan  believers  of  their  own,  enough  to  propitiate 
their  favor  for  the  adoption  of  a  system  essentially 
different  from  their  original  belief.  Their  pure  Aves- 
tan creed  abhorred  polytheism  and  idolatry.  But  its 
development,  as  appears  in  its  own  later  Scriptures, 
was  into  formalism,  and  thence  into  idolatry  of  forms, 
and  through  multiplication  of  divine  beings,  in  the 
direction  of  polytheism.  And  when,  spreading  west- 
ward, some  of  them  came  into  contact  with  the  Magian 
religion,   they   were   prepared   to  fall   in   with  it  in 


158  COMPARATIVE    RELIGION. 

whole  or  in  part.  The  result  seems  to  have  been  a  fu- 
sion— an  adoption  into  Avestanism  of  all  the  chief 
points  of  the  Magian  belief,  and  all  the  more  impor- 
tant of  the  Magian  usages.  This  absorption  appears  to 
have  taken  place  in  Media.  It  was  there  that  the  Ar- 
yan tribes  first  associated  with  themselves,  and  form- 
ally adopted  into  their  body  the  priest  caste  of  the 
Magi ;  and  it  is  there  that  Magi  are  first  found  acting 
in  the  capacity  of  Aryan  priests.  According  to  all 
the  accounts  which  have  come  down  to  us,  they  soon 
acquired  a  predominating  influence,  which  they  no 
doubt  used  to  impress  their  own  religious  doctrines 
more  and  more  upon  the  nation  at  large,  and  to  thrust 
into  the  background,  so  far  as  they  dared,  the  peculiar 
features  of  the  old  Avestan  belief  Magian  usages — 
elemental  worship,  divination  with  the  sacred  rods, 
dream-expounding,  incantations  at  the  fire-altars,  sac- 
rifices wliereat  a  Magus  officiated — seem  to  have  pre- 
vailed ;  the  new  predominated  over  the  old,  backed  by 
the  power  of  an  organized  hierarchy.  The  spiritual 
and  moral  religion  of  Zarathustra  was  gradually  over- 
laid by  a  nature  worship,  which  propitiated  its  favor 
through  resembling  it  in  some  of  its  outward  forms. 

Eawlinson,  from  whom  the  above  passage  is  sub- 
stantially taken,*  regards  Magism  as  in  its  origin  com- 
pletely distinct  from  Zoroastrianism,  and  as  the  chief 
cause  of  its  corruption,  and  of  the  remarkable  differ- 
ence between  the  earlier  and  the  later  Zendic  books. 
Similar  is  the  view  presented  by  Westergaard,  in  his 
preface  to  the  Zenda vesta.  ''  The  faith  ascribed  by 
*  The  Five  Great  Monarcliies,  vol.  ii.  333-354. 


III. MAGISM.  159 

Herodotus  to  the  Persians  is  not  the  lore  of  Zoroaster, 
nor  were  the  Magi,  in  the  time  of  Darius,  the  priests 
of  Orniazd.  Tlieir  name,  Magn,  occurs  only  twice  in 
all  the  extant  Zend  texts,  and  there  in  a  general  sense, 
while  Darius  opposes  his  creed  to  that  of  the  Magi, 
whom  he  treated  most  unmercifully." 

The  Bundehesh,  although  a  book  of  much  later 
production,  and  containing  doctrines  not  found  in  the 
ancient  hymns,  may  be  presumed  to  state  correctly 
the  belief  which  grew  up  under  the  influence  of 
Magism,  and  maintained  itself  in  the  best  days  of 
Persian  prosperity.  One  of  these  was  the  conception 
of  Deity,  sole,  and  far  removed  from  the  activities 
and  conflicts  of  life,  to  whom  both  Ormazd  and 
Ahriman  owe  thei/  existence.  Indications  of  this  be- 
lief, undeveloped,  appear  in  the  Yendidad. 

This  absolute  Deity,  Zerana-akerana,  created  Or- 
mazd and  Ahriman,  both  holy,  princes  of"  light ;  but 
the  latter  proved  unfaithful,  and  became  the  malig- 
nant prince  of  darkness.  To  correct  the  evil  thus 
introduced,  Zerana-akerana  created  the  visible  world 
by  Ormazd.  It  is  to  last  twelve  thousand  years,  and 
be  the  means  whereby  Ahriman  is  to  manifest  him- 
self and  w^ork  out  his  own  defeat.  That  period  is 
divided  into  four  parts  of  three  thousand  years  each — 
the  difierent  acts  of  the  great  drama  of  the  Universe, 
wherein  a  theatre  is  furnished  for  sin  to  carry  out  its 
malignant  passions,  to  its  own  ruin. 

In  that  creation  and  process,  all  things  in  heaven, 
in  earth  and  hell,  take  their  place  s  intelligent  beings, 
in  the   hosts   of  Ormazd,  or  of  Ahriman.     It  is  the 


160  COMPARATIVE    KELIGION. 

conflict  of  good  and  evil;  always  strenuous,  and  occa- 
sionally breaking  out  into  open  war.  Only  the  Infi- 
nite Zerana-akerana  remains  serene  and  undisturbed 
by  the  contest.  In  his  omniscient  mind  all  was  already 
ordained  how  it  should  come  to  pass.  The  prince  of 
evil  will  be  defeated  by  the  issue  of  his  own  devices. 
After  a  long  and  terrible  war  he  will  destroy  the 
earth  by  a  conflagration ;  but  will  himself  be  purified 
in  the  fire ;  all  sin  will  be  purged  away,  and  a  new 
creation  will  arise  in  spotless  beauty,  and  evil  shall  be 
found  no  more.* 

In  one  sense,  this  is  a  religion  of  nature.  For  it 
makes  everything  a  spiritual  agency  in  the  cause  of 
religion  ;  for  or  against.  But  it  is  not  nature  worship. 
For,  although  various  holy  beings  are  venerated, 
supreme  worship  is  paid  only  to  Ormazd,  the  leader 
of  the  hosts  of  good.  On  some  points  this  is  not  the 
doctrine  of  the  Gathas ;  but  it  is  a  sublime  moral  con- 
ception. The  gross  nature-worship  of  the  Magi,  the 
empty  pomp  of  their  formalities  and  incantations, 
must  have  been  oflfensive  to  every  true  believer  in  the 
pure  moral  religion  of  Zarathustra. 

*  Freeman  Clarke,  Ten  Great  Religions,  194,  201. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

PROGRESS  OF    LEGALISM   IN    CHINA. 

The  Chinese  sacred  book  of  poetry  is  a  collection  of 
three  hundred  and  five  pieces,  brief  and  lyrical.  It 
was  edited  by  Confucius,  who  also  perhaps  improved 
the  arrangement  in  some  respects  ;  but,  in  the  estimate 
of  Dr.  Legge,  his  editorial  work  upon  it  must  have 
been  slight.  For  there  is  abundant  evidence  that  it 
existed  before  his  time,  in  all  essentials,  as  it  is  now. 
In  the  attempt  of  the  Tsin  dynasty  to  destroy  the 
sacred  books,  this  was  more  fortunate  than  the  rest,  in 
that  it  was  retained  completely  in  memory  by  a  great 
number  of  literary  men;  and  was  easily  restored  with 
little  or  no  damage.  Although  very  ancient,  it  is  not 
the  oldest  of  the  sacred  books ;  but  the  remnant  of 
various  collections  made  during  the  early  reigns  of 
the  Chow  dynasty,  with  perhaps  some  subsequent 
additions.  All  of  these  additions,  if  any,  must  be 
older  than  the  time  of  Confucius.  For  the  number 
of  pieces  edited  by  Confucius  is  the  number  of  the 
collection  now.  It  consists  not  merely  of  hymns,  but 
also  of  popular  secular  songs,  gathered  by  the  early 
Chow  princes  from  different  provinces,  as  a  means  of 
ascertaining  the  tone  of  moral  sentiment  among  the 
people.     The  odes  of  the  kingdom  are  chiefly  religious, 


162  COMPARATIVE   KELIGION. 

those  of  the  temple  entirely,  and  together  these  two 
parts  form  about  half  the  whole  collection.  From 
tliose  poems,  as  compared  with  the  historic  classic, 
may  be  gathered  important  facts  touching  the  histori- 
cal development  of  the  national  religion. 

Chinese  History  begins  with  King  Yaou  (2356 
B.  c.)  who  was  succeeded  by  Shun.  Their  two  reigns 
cover  one  hundred  and  fifty  years.  Then  followed 
the  Hea  dynasty,  lasting  four  hundred  and  thirty-nine 
years.  After  that  came  the  dynasty  of  Shang  which 
continued  six  hundred  and  forty -four  years ;  followed 
by  that  of  Chow,  which  was  still  on  the  throne  in  the 
time  of  Confucius. 

"  According  to  the  received  accounts,  the  three  dy- 
nasties of  Hea,  Shang  and  Chow  were  established,  one 
after  another,  by  princes  of  great  virtue  and  force  of 
character,  aided  in  each  case  by  a  minister  of  consum- 
mate ability  and  loyal  devotion.  At  the  head  of  the 
Hea  dynasty  was  Yu,  educated  in  the  religious  doc- 
trines and  practices  of  the  pious  Yaou  and  Shun.  But 
his  line  degenerated,  and  with  it,  the  nation,  in  gov- 
ernment, religion  and  morality.  A  thorough  and  godly 
reformation  was  introduced  by  the  emperor  T'ang, 
founder  of  the  Shang  dynasty.  But  after  a  few  reigns 
his  successors  also  failed  in  virtue  or  energy.  From 
time  to  time  a  prince  arose  who  partially  repaired  the 
state  of  government,  and  thereby  prolonged  the  exist- 
ence of  that  imperial  house,  until  it  finally  gave  way 
before  the  gifted  and  more  virtuous  prince  of  Chow. 
But  the  history  of  that  dynasty,  founded  by  Woo,  pur- 
sued a  similar  career,  until  in  the  days  of  Confucius, 


PROGRESS    OF    LEGALISM    IN   CHINA.  163 

government,  religion  and  morals  alike  had  fallen  into 
a  state  of  great  irregularity. 

In  the  historical  classic  '*  the  termination  of  the  dy- 
nasties of  Hea  and  Shang  is  attributed  to  the  wicked- 
ness of  their  last  emperors.  After  a  long  array  of  fee- 
ble princes,"  there  appear  on  the  throne  men  of  physi- 
cal strength,  and  extravagant  ''debaucheries,  having 
neither  piety  nor  truth ;  and  in  contrast  with  them  are 
princes,  whose  fathers  have  for  several  generations 
been  attracting  general  notice  by  their  righteousness 
and  benevolence.  When  Heaven  and  men  can  no 
longer  bear  the  iniquity  of  the  tyrants,  the  standard 
of  revolt  is  raised,  and  the  empire  speedily  comes  un- 
der a  new  rule.''  ^  The  accounts  touching  the 
causes  of  revolution  in  both  cases  may  be  exaggerated, 
we  do  not  know  that  they  are ;  the  main  facts  there  is 
no  reason  to  doubt. 

It  w^as  under  the  revival  of  national  religion  and 
of  good  government  in  the  beginning  of  the  Chow  dy- 
nasty, in  the  twelfth,  or  eleventh  century  before  Christ, 
that  the  Book  of  poetry  comes  into  notice.  "The 
Shoo,''  that  is  the  historical  classic,  "  mentions  that 
Shun  every  fifth  year  made  a  tour  of  inspection 
through  his  empire  ;  but  there  were  no  odes  for  him 
to  examine,  as  to  him,  and  his  minister,  Kaou-Yaou 
is  attributed  the  first  rudimentary  attempt  at  the  po- 
etic art.  Of  the  progresses  of  the  Hea  and  Yin  dynas- 
ties we  have  no  information,  those  of  the  kings  of 
Chow  "  were  made  once  in  twelve  years."  "  From 
the  '  Official  Book  of  Chow  ' ''  it  appears  that  ''  in  the 
*  Legge  Sacred  Classics,  vol.  iii.  Pt.  1.  Prolegomena,  p.  198-9. 


164:  COMPARATIVE   RELIGION. 

Chow  dynasty  there  was  a  collection  of  poems,"  "  which 
it  was  the  business  of  the  grand  music-master  to  teach 
the  musicians  and  tlie  eleves  of  the  royal  school.  It 
may  be  granted  then,  that  the  duke  of  Chow,  in  legis- 
lating for  his  dynasty,  enacted  that  the  poems  pro- 
duced in  the  different  feudal  states  should  be  collected 
on  the  occasions  of  the  royal  progresses,  and  lodged 
thereafter  among  the  archives  of  the  bureau  of  music 
at  the  royal  court.  The  same  thing  we  may  presume 
a  fortiori,  would  be  done  with  those  produced  within 
the  royal  domain  itself.'' 

"  But  the  feudal  states  were  modelled  after  the 
pattern  of  the  royal  state.  They  also  had  their  music- 
masters,  their  musicians,  and  their  histriographers. 
The  kings  in  their  progresses  did  not  visit  each  par- 
ticular state,  so  that  their  music-masters  could  have  an 
opportunity  to  collect  the  odes  in  it  for  themselves. 
They  met  at  well-known  points,  the  marquises,  earls, 
barons,  etc.,  of  the  different  quarters  of  the  kingdom ; 
these  gave  them  audience ;  adjudicated  upon  their 
merits ;  and  issued  to  them  their  orders.  We  are 
obliged  to  suppose  that  the  princes  would  be  attended  to 
the  places  of  rendezvous  by  their  music-masters,  carry- 
ing with  them  the  poetical  compositions  collected  in 
their  several  regions,  to  present  them  to  their  superior 
of  the  royal  court.  By  such  arrangement  the  poems 
deemed  the  most  deserving  of  preservation  were  col- 
lected and  classified  *'  among  the  archives  of  the  capi- 
tal." Thence,  as  having  received  the  sanction  of  the 
highest  authorit}^,  they  were  copied  and  carried  abroad 
to  be  sung  in  all  the  states  of  the  empire.     The  small- 


PROGRESS   OF   LEGALISM   IN   CHINA.  165 

ness  of  the  collection  may  be  satisfactorily  accounted 
for  by  the  reduplicated  and  careful  criticism  to  which 
all  such  productions  were  subjected  before  any  of  them 
could  be  admitted  to  the  imperial  archives  during  the 
period  to  which  those  progresses  belong,  as  well  as  to 
the  utter  neglect  of  the  whole  subject,  in  ''  the  disorder 
and  confusion  into  which  the  kingdom  fell  after  the 
lapse  of  a  few  reigns  from  King  Woo.  Royal  progresses 
ceased  when  royal  government  fell  into  decay,  and 
then  the  odes  were  no  longer  collected."  The  collec- 
tion was  made  in  the  interest  ^'  of  good  government 
and  virtuous  morals.''  And  when  these  declined  at 
headquarters,  the  people  were  left  without  a  guide  in 
religious  and  popular  song,  to  follow  their  own  fancy.* 

"  The  book  of  poetry  abundantly  confirms  the  con- 
clusions already  drawn  from  the  Shoo-King  "  touching 
the  knowledge  of  God  possessed  by  the  ancient  Chi- 
nese ;.  as  well  as  their  behef  in  subordinate  spirits,  or 
angels.  But  it  also  contains  evidence  of  a  progress  in 
development  of  the  latter,  proceeding  by  the  path  of 
personification  of  natural  agencies,  and  by  multiplying 
and  exalting  of  spiritual  beings,  towards  a  polytheism, 
and' especially  to  deification  of  ancestors. 

'No  idolatry  appears  in  the  worship  of  Yaou  and 
Shun,  nor  in  the  revival  of  that  under  T'ang ;  nor 
does  it  appear  that  images  of  God  were  employed 
as  helps  in  his  service.  But  in  succeeding  times,  it 
came  into  practice  in  the  religious  veneration  paid  to 
ancestors,  and  from  that  extended  to  the  national  re- 
ligion. Thus,  as  it  was  through  an  intermediate 
*  Legge,  vol.  iv.  part  1.  pp.  24,  25,  26. 


166  COMPARATIVE    RELIGION. 

idolatry  that  the  Semitic  nations  arrived  at  polytheism, 
and  through  a  poetic  personification  of  divine  attributes 
and  powers  of  nature  that  the  Aryan  nations  were  be- 
guiled into  the  idea  of  many  gods,  so  the  Chinese  were 
misled  into  a  multiplicity  of  objects  of  worship  by 
their  exaggerated  veneration  of  ancestors. 

The  national  worship  of  God,  the  unseen  Supreme 
Huler,  degenerated  into  a  mere  ritual  observed  twice 
if  not  four  times  a  year,  as  the  spirit  of  a  national  festi- 
val presided  over  by  the  emperor.  In  the  midst  of 
the  Patriarchal  idolatry  of  the  masses,  and  the  shallow 
ritualism  of  the  national  observances,  educated  and  in- 
telligent men  began  to  doubt  the  truth  of  all  religion, 
and  of  the  existence  of  a  future  life,  and  that  long  be- 
fore the  time  of  Confucius. 

Meanwhile,  every  tribe  and  family  having  its  own 
particular  object  of  faith  and  adoration,  the  ceremonial 
of  popular  worship  was  greatly  increased  ;  while  the 
national  had  become  more  pompous  :  and  among  the 
people  the  fundamental  ideas  of  a  supreme  Ruler  in 
Heaven,  and  of  a  state  of  rewards  for  the  righteous  be- 
yond the  grave  held  their  place  in  a  vague  and  general 
way.  Future  punishment  was  early  lost  sight  of  in 
the  tendency  of  every  family  to  regard  their  own  de- 
parted forefathers  as  objects  of  worship. 

This  polytheism  of  ancestors  was  further  augment- 
ed by  the  exaltation  of  the  spirits,  presiding  over  differ- 
ent spheres  of  nature,  to  such  worship  as  was  proper 
to  God  alone. 

There  were  also  sacrifices  in  the  royal  temple  of 
ancestors  in  the  first  months  of  the  four  seasons  of  the 


PROGRESS   OF   LEGALISM   IN   CHDJA.  167 

year.  In  the  time  when  the  poetry  of  the  She-King 
"was  collected  that  ceremonial  was  an  object  of  more 
interest  than  the  worship  of  God.*  It  is  mentioned 
often  in  the  odes,  which  make  no  mention  of  the  wor- 
ship of  God,  except  incidentally.  Those  ceremonies 
were  preceded  by  fasting  and  various  purifications 
on  the  part  of  the  king  and  the  parties  who  were  to  as- 
sist in  the  performance  of  them.  There  was  a  great 
concourse  of  the  feudal  princes,  and  much  importance 
was  attached  to  the  presence  among  them  of  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  former  dynasties ;  but  the  duties  of 
the  occasion  devolved  mainly  on  the  princes  of  the 
same  surname  as  the  royal  house.  Libations  of  fra- 
grant spirits  were  made  to  attract  the  Spirits,  and 
their  presence  was  evoked  by  a  functionary  who  took 
his  place  inside  the  principal  gate..  The  principal  vic- 
tim, a  red  bull,  was  killed  by  the  king  himself,  using 
for  the  purpose  a  knife  to  the  handle  of  which  were 
attached  small  bells.  With  this  he  laid  bare  the  hair, 
to  show  that  the  animal  was  of  the  required  color,  in- 
flicted the  wound  of  death,  and  cut  away  the  fat,  which 
was  burned  along  with  southern  wood,  to  increase  the 
incense  and  fragrance.  Other  victims  were  numerous. 
The  fifth  ode  of  the  sixth  Book,  in  part  second,  de- 
scribes the  offerings,  the  preparations,  the  "  flaying  the 
carcasses,  boiling  the  flesh,  roasting  it,  broiling  it,  ar- 
ranging it  on  trays  and  stands,  and  setting  it  forth." 
Ladies  are  present,  ''  presiding  and  assisting,  music 
peals,  the  cup  goes  round."  The  description  is  as  much 
that  of  a  feast  as  of  a  sacrifice,  and  in  fact,  those  great 
*  Legge,  vol.  iv.  Protegomena,  p.  132-135. 


168  COMPARATIVE   RELIGION. 

seasonal  occasions  were  what  we  might  call  grand  fam- 
ily re-nnions,  where  the  dead  and  the  living  met,  eat- 
ing and  drinking  together,  where  the  liv^ing  worship- 
ped the  dead,  and  the  dead  blessed  the  living. 

This  characteristic  of  these  ceremonies  appeared 
most  strikingly  in  the  custom  which  required  that  the 
departed  ancestors  should  be  represented  by  living 
individuals  of  the  same  surname,  chosen  according  to 
certain  rules  which  the  odes  do  not  mention.  They 
took  for  the  time  the  place  of  the  dead,  received  the 
honors  which  were  due  to  them,  and  were  supposed  to 
be  possessed  by  their  spirits.  They  ate  and  drank  as 
those  whom  they  personated  would  have  done;  ac- 
cepted for  them  the  homage  rendered  by  their  descend- 
ants; communicated  their  will  to  the  principal  in  the 
sacrifice  or  feast,  and  pronounced  on  him  and  his  line 
their  benediction,  being  assisted  in  this  point  by  a 
mediating  priest,  as  we  must  call  him,  for  want  of  a 
better  term.  On  the  next  day,  after  a  summary  repe- 
tition of  the  ceremonies  of  the  sacrifice,  these  persona- 
tors  of  the  dead  were  specially  feasted,  and  so,  as  it  is 
expressed,  "  their  happiness  and  dignity  were  made 
complete."  ''  This  custom  probably  originated  under 
the  Chow  dynasty — one  of  the  regulations  made  by 
the  duke  of  Chow ;  and  subsequently  to  it,  it  fell  into 
disuse. 

"  When  the  sacrifice  to  ancestors  was  finished,  the 
king  feasted  his  uncles  and  younger  brothers  or  cousins, 
that  is,  all  the  princes  and  nobles  of  the  same  surname 
with  himself,  in  another  apartment.  "  The  musicians, 
vocal  and   instrumental,  who  had   performed   in  the 


PEOGEESS  OF  LEGALISM  IN  CHINA.       169 

preceding  ceremonies,  "  followed  the  convivial  party, 
to  give  their  soothing  aid  at  the  second  blessing." 
Yiands,  which  had  been  provided  in  great  abun- 
dance, **  were  brought  in  from  the  temple,  and  set 
forth  anew.  The  guests  ate  to  the  full  and  drank  to 
the  full ;  and  at  the  conclusion  they  all  bowed  their 
heads,  while  one  of  them  declared  the  satisfaction  of 
the  spirits  with  the  services  rendered  to  them,  and 
assured  the  king  of  .their  favor  to  him  and  his  posterity, 
so  long  as  they  did  not  neglect  these  observances." 
*' During  the  feast  the  king  showed  particular  respect 
to  those  among  his  relatives  who  were  aged,  filled 
their  cups  again  and  again,  and  desired  that  their  old 
age  might  be  blessed,  and  their  bright  happiness  ever 
increased." 

The  above  sketch  of  the  seasonal  sacrifices  to  an- 
cestors shows  that  they  were  mainly  designed  to  main- 
tain the  unity  of  the  family  connection,  and  intimately 
related  to  the  duty  of  filial  piety.  Yet  by  means  of 
them  the  ancestors  of  the  kings  were  raised  to  the  posi- 
tion of  the  Tutelary  spirits  of  the  dynasty  ;  and  the  an- 
cestors of  each  family  became  its  Tutelary  spirits." 

Other  services  were  also  performed  in  the  temple 
of  ancestors ;  but  less  frequently,  such  as  those  on  the 
occasion  of  setting  np  the  spirit-tablet  of  a  deceased 
monarch  twenty-five  months  after  his  death,  and  the 
celebration,  once  in  five  years,  when  sacrifice  was  ofier- 
ed  to  all  the  ancestors  of  the  royal  house,  "  beginning 
with  the  mythical  emperor  Kuh,  to  whom  their  lineage 
was  traced." 

The  existence  of  God  was  not  lost  sight  of,  nor  his 


170  COMPARATIVE   EELIGION. 

worship  entirely  neglected,  in  the  course  of  the  Chow 
dynasty ;  but  both  were  reduced  to  a  secondary  im- 
portance in  the  midst  of  an  accumulating  idolatry  of 
half-deified  ancestors.  In  the  religious  odes  the  praises 
of  God  are  often  sung,  but  only  as  connected  with 
those  of  ancestral  heroes,  one  of  whom  is  always  the 
principal  theme.  With  the  still  existing  recognition 
of  one  God,  the  worship  of  the  nation  was  actually 
paid  to  thousands  of  divine  beings. 

The  solemnity  of  worship  was  lost  in  the  multitude 
of  its  ceremonies.  And  the  imperfect  observance  of  the 
minutest  particular  was  deemed  ominous.  Although 
entirely  at  variance  with  a  radical  principle  of  Chinese 
religion,  even  human  victims  were  sometimes  offered 
in  sacrifice  to  the  deified  spirits  of  men.  And  in  the 
funeral  of  a  prince  men  were  sometimes  buried  alive 
along  with  him.  In  the  odes  these  things  are  con- 
demned as  contrary  to  the  practice  of  the  ancients. 
The  Muh  of  Ts'in  is  censured  because  "  In  his  death 
he  threw  away  the  lives  of  his  people.  When  the  an- 
cient kings  left  the  world,  they  yet  left  behind  them  a 
good  example ; — would  they  ever  have  snatched  away 
from  it  its  good  men  ?     The  words  of  the  Ode 

*  Men  there  are  not, 

And  the  empire  must  go  to  ruin 

And  misery ' 

have  reference  to  the  want  of  good  men."  *  The  his- 
torical classic,  which  treats  of  the  two  hundred  years 
immediately  preceding  Confucius,  is  the  baldest  and 

*  Legge  V.  p.  244. 


PROGRESS    OF    LEGALISM    IN    CHINA.  171 

scantiest  of  records,  and  deliberately  omits  what  the 
author  deemed  discreditable  to  his  people,  bat  yet  with 
aid  of  the  ancient  commentary  upon  it,  bears  abundant 
testimony  to  an  equally  degenerate  tone  of  morals. 
In  spite  of  all  devices  to  ignore  and  cover  up  the  evil, 
without  committing  positive  falsehood,  it  appears  that 
dishonesty,  unfaithfulness  to  trust,  licentiousness  and 
murder  were  of  frequent  occurrence  in  the  highest  places 
of  rank  and  office,  while  insubordination  and  disorder 
prevailed  in  the  provinces.*  An  original  veneration 
for  parents,  having  assumed  a  religious  character,  had 
developed  into  a  semi-polytheism,  and  a  complete  idol- 
atry, which  so  fully  occupied  the  public  mind  as  to  re- 
move from  it  the  idea  of  the  supreme  Being  to  a  great 
distance.  The  moral  effect  of  a  real  belief  in  the  presence 
of  God  had  given  place  to  that  which  must  attend 
upon  faith  in  the  guardianship  of  an  indulgent  an- 
cestor, who  can  sympathize  with  the  wishes  of  his 
children,  and  easily  tolerate  their  weaknesses  and  errors. 
In  the  order  of  ceremony  God  took  precedence,  as  a 
superior  but  fir  distant  monarch. f 

"  In  spring  and  Autumn,  without  delay. 
He  presents  his  offerings  without  error 
To  the  great   and  sovereign  God, 
And  to  his  great  ancestor  How-Tseih." 

That  honor  of  precedence  is  assigned  to  God  by 
the  Chinese  extreme  regard  for  the  proprieties  of  order 
and  deportment,  which  were  prescribed  to  the  minutest 
particular  by  the  rules  of  society. 

*  tSee  the  Ch'un  Ts'ew,  with  the  Tso-chuen,  passim. 

fLegge  V.  1,  page  234  and  She-King  iv.  ii.  song  iv.  3. 


172  COMPARATIVE   RELIGION. 

The  early  fragments  of  history  which  constitute  the 
greater  part  of  the  Shoo-King  and  pertain  to  the  second 
millennium  before  Christ  are  imbued  with  an  elevated 
spiritual  religion  ;  the  odes,  collected  during  the  first 
reigns  of  the  Chow  dynasty  from  800  to  1100  years 
before  Christ  present  a  religion  more  ancestral  and  less 
godly,  and  the  Ch'un  Ts'ew  has  no  more  religious 
spirit  than  a  calendar.  It  is  from  the  commentary  on 
it,  Tso-chuen,  that  any  view  is  obtained  of  the  state 
of  religion  between  the  end  of  the  eighth  century  b.  c. 
and  the  tnne  of  Confucius.  At  that  later  epoch  the 
degeneracy  extended  to  all  classes,  to  intellectual  cul- 
ture as  well  as  to  religion.  It  was  told  to  Min-tse-ma 
that  the  Lord  of  Yuen  did  not  like  learning.  "  There 
will  soon  be  disorder  in  Chow,''  he  replied.  "  Tliere 
must  be  many  there  who  talk  in  that  way,  before  such 
iin  idea  reaches  the  great  men.  The  great  men  are 
troubled  at  errors  [of  some  who  have  learned,]  and  be- 
come deluded  [on  the  subject,]  till  they  say,  '  Learn- 
ing may  be  done  without.  The  want  of  learning  does 
no  harm.'  But  it  is  an  accidental  circumstance  when 
the  want  of  learning  does  no  harm.  From  such  a  con- 
dition inferiors  will  be  usurping  and  superiors  will  be 
set  aside ; — is  it  possible  that  disorders  should  not 
ensue  ?  Learning  is  like  cultivation  ;  if  people  do  not 
learn,  there  will  be  decadence  and  decay.  We  may 
judge  that  the  family  of  Yuen  will  come  to  ruin."  * 

Next  after  the  Shoo-King,  the  Book  of  poetry  is 
the  most  interesting  of  the  Chinese  sacred  scriptures. 
It  is  possessed  of  more  real  poetry  than  might  be  an- 
*  Legge  V.  p.  671. 


PROGRESS   OF   LEGALISM   IN   CHINA.  173 

ticipated  from  the  prosaic  character  of  the  Chinese  peo- 
ple. But  it  illuminates  only  a  brief  period  of  their 
history,  and  that  far  from  the  earliest ;  and  is  less  de- 
votional than  similarly  ancient  poetry  elsewhere.  The 
Ch'uii  Ts'ew  is  a  very  bald  and  scanty  calendar  of  the 
province,  or  state,  of  Loo,  extending  from  the  first  year 
of  Duke  Yin  in  721  b.  c.  until  the  fourteenth  of  Duke 
Gae  in  480  b.  c.  ^  In  the  province  of  Loo  and  in  the 
twenty-second  year  of  Duke  Seang,  namely  549  b.  c, 
Confucius  was  born,  at  a  time  of  great  degeneracy  ot 
the  national  religion  and  morals. 

*  Legge  V.  Prolegom.  p.  103,  etc. 


CHAPTEK  X. 

PROGRESS  OF  LEGALISM  IN  THE  IJNREFORMED 
POLYTHEISMS. 

"While  these  changes  were  taking  place  upon  the 
religions  of  the  monotheistic  reformation,  the  old  prim- 
itive beliefs  continued  the  career  of  degeneracy  which 
had  provoked  the  dissent.  Egypt  and  the  nations  of 
Syria  never  learned  to  look  upon  the  religion  of  the 
Hebrews  as  different  from  their  own,  otherwise  than 
as  the  worship  of  another  god.  In  their  estimate 
Jehovah  was  only  another  name  added  to  the  pantheon, 
and  as  he  was  the  god  of  an  intrusive  people,  regarded 
perhaps  with  apprehension  and  dislike.  Nor  does  it 
appear  that  any  of  them  adopted  from  his  worship  an 
improvement  of  their  Own,  nor  that  the  natural  devel- 
opment of  their  religious  views  was  in  any  way  ob- 
structed by  the  influence  of  Mosaism  in  their  neigh- 
borhood. 

The  sentiment  of  patriarchal  authority  pervaded  all 
nations  primitively.  But  its  development  was  various 
according  to  the  elements  with  which  it  was  combined. 
Its  outgrowth  for  the  state  in  all  quarters  was  mon- 
archy, and,  for  the  most  part,  a  sacerdotal  monarchy, 
in  which  the  king  was  the  chief  priest  or  head  of  the 
national  religion.     This  took  place  in  Egypt,  in  As- 


LEGALISM   IN    THE    UNREFORMED   POLYTHEISMS.      175 

Syria  and  in  China  ;  and  in  Yedic  times,  also  in  India. 
To  such  degree  also  were  the  Homeric  heroes  sacer- 
dotal princes,  that  with  the  aid  of  professional  priests, 
they  presided  over  the  sacrifices  they  made,  and  offered 
prayers  for  themselves  and  their  people.  The  increas- 
ing importance  attached  to  the  accuracy  in  details  of 
the  service  gave  increasing  importance  to  the  profes- 
sional minister,  who  had  nothing  else  to  occupy  his 
mind.  In  course  of  time  the  Aryan  priesthood  be- 
came separated  from  the  royal  office  and  assigned 
to  a  different  class  or  caste.  In  Assyria  the  patriarchal 
idea  blossomed  into  the  absolute  authority  of  the  mon- 
arch in  both  civil  and  religious  matters.  It  was  the 
king  of  Mneveh  who  ordained  the  repentance  and  acts 
of  humiliation  before  God,  at  the  preaching  of  Jonah, 
and  Nebuchadnezzar  ordered  all  the  great  religious  ob- 
servances mentioned  as  conducted  in  Babylon  under  his 
reign.  Such  was  the  position  of  the  king  of  Egypt 
in  relation  to  the  religion  of  his  people,  as  long  as  a 
native  dynasty  held  the  throne. 

Another  outgrowth  of  the  same  sentiment  was  the 
deification  of  some  of  the  proto-patriarchs  of  each  of 
those  great  ethnic  branches.  Ham  (Khem)  was  the 
Father-god  in  Egypt,  and  Asshur  in  Assyria.  Among 
the  Aryans  that  line  of  thought  was  not  pursued. 
Their  forefathers  became  heroes  but  not  gods.  In 
China,  it  reached  the  most  complete  development, 
entering  into  the  fundamental  idea  of  the  civil  gov- 
ernment, and  grasping  within  its  arms  the  whole  of 
the  national  religion  and  system  of  society. 

Such  importance  as  we  attached  to  the  Hebrew  in  the 


176  COMPARATIVE    RELIGION. 

foregoing  connection,  is  hardly  less  due  to  the  Hindu, 
in  this.  Nowhere  else  has  a  primitive  religion  been 
fortified  by  such  a  legal  structure,  so  complete,  so  per- 
vasive and  so  long  maintained. 


LATER  HINDU  SCRIPTURES. 


Hindu  scriptures,  subsequent  to  the  ancient  hymns, 
are  liturgical,  expository,  legal,  and  theological.  First; 
there  is  worship  in  which  hymns  are  used.  Next  comes 
the  formal  work  of  collecting  and  arranging  the  hymns, 
and  second  to  that,  the  appending  of  directions  for  the 
use  of  them,  with  expository  remarks  about  them ; 
thirdly,  the  construction  of  separate  books  for  liturgi- 
cal purposes,  and  fourthly,  the  extending  of  exposition 
into  theological  teaching. 

The  first  falls  under  what  Prof  Max  Miiller  dis- 
tinguishes as  the  Chhandas  period,  and  the  second, 
under  that  which  he  designates  of  the  Mantras. 

To  the  third  head  belong  parts,  perhaps  the  rudi- 
mentary parts,  of  the  Brahmanas,  then  the  two  litur- 
gical Yedas ;  the  continued  extension  of  the  Brahmanas, 
as  attached  to  all  three  Yedas  ;  and  finally,  into  those 
theological  treatises  called  Aranyakas  and  Upanishads. 
Of  these  elements  consists  the  Hindu  canon  of  Scrip- 
ture, as  far  as  it  is  thought  to  be  revealed. 

A  second  portion  derives  its  authority,  not  imme- 
diately from  revelation,  but  from  tradition,  or  from 
the  eminent  learning,  wisdom  and  piety  of  its  authors. 


I. LATER    HINDU    SCEIPTCRES.  177 

To  this  head  belong  the  Sutras,  which,  although  regard- 
eel  as  sacred  scripture,  are  not  on  a  footing  of  equality 
with  the  Brahmanas;  and  also  the  laws  of  Man u,  and 
some  other  works.  There  was  a  time  when  only  the 
hymns  were  accepted  as  revealed.  The  claiming  a 
divine  origin  for  the  Brahmanas  was  related  to  a  serious 
dissent  in  the  Hindu  religion,  but  for  that,  the  Sutras 
might,  in  course  of  time,  have  also  been  added  to  the 
class  of  revealed. 

The  nature  of  that  growth  will  appear  more  dis- 
tinctly in  the  following  explanations,  collected  from 
Prof.  Wilson's  Lectures,  Miiller's  History,  and  Small's 
Handbook  of  Sanskrit  Literature,  Ward  on  the  Hindus 
and  Ballantyne's  "  Christianity  contrasted  with  Hindu 
Philosophy." 

1.  ''  The  Sutra,  Brahmana  and  Mantra  periods  of 
Yedic  literature  ail  point  to  some  earlier  age,  which 
gave  birth  to  the  poetry  of  the  early  Pishis.  There 
was  a  time,  doubtless,  when  the  songs,  which  w^ere 
collected  with  such  careful  zeal  in  the  Mantra  period, 
and  examined  and  analyzed  with  such  minute  exact- 
ness during  the  Sutra  period,  lived  and  were  under- 
stood without  any  effort  by  a  simple  and  pious  race. 
There  was  a  time  wdien  the  sacrifices,  which  after- 
wards became  so  bew^ildering  a  system  of  ceremonies, 
were  dictated  by  the  free  impulse  of  the  human  heart, 
by  a  yearning  to  render  thanks  to  some  Unknown 
Being,  and  to  repay,  in  words  and  deeds,  a  debt  of 
gratitude,  accumulated  from  the  first  breath  of  life — a 
time  when  the  poet  was  the  leader,  the  king  and  priest 
of  his  family  or  tribe ;  listened  to  and  looked  up  to  as 
8* 


178  COMPAKATIVE   RELIGION. 

better,  nobler  and  wiser  than  the  rest,  and  as  being 
nearer  to  the  gods  in  proportion  as  he  was  raised  above 
the  common  level  of  mankind."  ''  Such  men  were  at 
once  teachers,  lawgivers,  poets  and  priests.  Their 
teaching,  poetry  and  religion,  simple  and  crude  as 
they  are,  possess  a  peculiar  charm,  as  spontaneous, 
original  and  truthful.'' 

The  greater  portion  of  what  we  now  possess  of 
Yedic  poetry  must  be  ascribed  to  the  Mantra  (or 
Becondary)  period ;  but  there  still  remains  enough  to 
give  us  an  idea  of  an  earlier  race  of  Yedic  poets. 
Even  those  earliest  specimens  of  Yedic  composition, 
however,  belong  clearly,  as  Bunsen  remarks,  to  the 
modern  historj^  of  the  human  race.  Ages  must  have 
passed  before  the  grammatical  texture  of  the  Yedic 
Sanskrit  could  have  assumed  the  consistency  and  reg- 
ularity which  it  shows  throughout.  The  same  applies' 
to  the  religion  of  the  Yeda.  The  earliest  periods  of 
its  historic  growth  must  have  passed  away  long  be- 
fore the  Rishis  of  India  could  have  worshipped  their 
Devas,  or  '  bright  beings,'  with  hymns  and  invocations. 
But  we  should  look  in  vain  in  the  literature  of  Greece 
or  Kome,  or  of  any  other  Aryan  nation,  for  documents 
from  which  to  study  that  interesting  chapter  in  the 
histor}^  of  mankind — the  transition  from  a  natural  into 
an  artificial  religion — so  full  and  valuable  as  we  pos- 
sess them  in  the  Yeda." 

2.  Mantra  period.  "  The  only  document  we  have  in 
which  we  can  study  the  characters  of  the  times  previous 
to  the  Brahmana  period  is  the  Rig-veda  Sanhitd.  The 
other  two  Sanhitds  (viz.  of  the  Yajur-veda  and  the  Sama- 


I. LATER    HINDU    SCRIPTURES.  179 

veda)  were  in  truth,  what  they  have  been  called,  'the 
attendants  of  the  Kig-veda.*  The  Brahmanas  presup- 
pose the  Trayi-  Yidya  the  '  threefold  knowledge,'  or 
the  threefold  Yeda,  but  that  again  presupposes  one 
Yeda,  and  that  the  Rig-veda.  It  belongs  to  a  period 
previous  to  the  complete  ascendancy  of  the  Brahmanas, 
and  before  the  threefold  ceremonial  had  been  worked 
out  in  all  its  details.  And  yet  there  is  some  system, 
some  priestly  influence  clearly  distinguishable  in 
that  collection  also.  The  ten  books  of  the  Rioc-veda 
stand  before  us  as  separate  collections,  each  belonging 
to  one  of  the  ancient  families  of  India,  but  there  are 
traces  in  them  of  one  superintending  spirit.  Eight  out 
of  the  ten  Mcmdalas  begin  with  hymns  addressed  to 
Agni,  and  these  with  one  exception,  are  invariably 
followed  by  hymns  addressed  to  Indra.  This  cannot 
be  the  result  of  mere  accident,  but  must  have  been 
from  previous  agreement,  and  it  leads  us  to  conclude 
that  the  Mandalas  were  not  made  independently  by 
different  families,  but  were  collections  carried  out 
simultaneously  in  diiferent  localities  under  the  super- 
vision of  one  central  authority." 

It  may  be  remarked,  in  passing,  that  what  Prof. 
Miiller  infers  as  the  way  in  which  the  Indian  collec- 
tion of  hymns  was  made,  corresponds  to  what  is  histor- 
ically demonstrable  of  the  Chinese.  His  chronology, 
the  shortest  that  can  be  reasonably  supposed,  puts  the 
Mantra  period  between  800  and  1000  b.  c.  An 
earlier  date  is  more  probable.  And  between  1100  and 
900  B.  c.  the  main  body  of  the  Hebrew  psalms  must 
have  been  composed.     About  that  date  the  great  work 


180  COMPARATIVE    RELIGION. 

of  religion  over  the  world  was  the  composition  and 
collecting  of  hymns  and  sacred  songs.  ]^ot  much  if 
any  later,  Greece  produced  her  hymns  to  the  gods. 
'No  other  period  in  the  world's  history  presents  such 
a  universal  and  systematic  care  in  collecting  and  classi- 
fying the  productions  of  religious  poetry.  That  zeal 
was  probably  stimulated  by  the  presence  of  the  best 
hymn- writers,  and  having  completed  its  work  the  gift 
of  poetic  production  became  less  common  and  finally 
disappeared ;  or  what  was  subsequently  composed 
failed  to  meet  the  same  zealous  appreciation.  The 
period  to  which  the  great  colloctions  of  psalms  and 
hymns  belong  is  that  lying  between  1100  and  800 
years  before  Christ.  Then  were  the  She-King  of 
China,  the  Rig-veda  Sanhita  of  India,  the  mass  of  the 
Hebrew  psalms,  and  of  the  Greek  hymns  to  the  gods, 
each  in  their  respective  ethnic  connections,  compiled. 

3.  "  It  is  difficult  to  give  an  exhaustive  definition 
of  what  a  Brahmana  is.  *  They  were  Brahmanic  {i.  e. 
theological)  tracts,  comprising  the  knowledge  most  val- 
ued by  the  Brahmans,  bearing  partly  on  their  sacred 
hymns,  partly  on  the  traditions  and  customs  of  the  peo- 
ple. They  profess  to  teach  the  performance  of  the 
sacrifice,  but  for  the  greater  part  are  occupied  with  ad- 
ditional matter,  chiefly  connected  with  the  Hindu  faith 
and  ceremonials."  They  are  included  under  the  name 
of  Yeda,  but  are  of  a  ''  more  peculiarly  sacrificial  char- 
acter'' than  the  Mantras,  and  are  not  composed  in 
metre.  Different  portions  of  them  are  referred  to 
under  various  names,  and  some  of  those  divisions  must 
have  been  written  at  far  distant  periods  of  time ;  as  in- 


I. LATER    HINDU    SCRIPTURES.  181 

deed  "  is  proved  not  only  by  the  testimony  of  Panini, 
but  also  by  quotations  in  the  Brahmanas  themselves." 
They  represent  snccessive  stages  in  the  Hindu  religion, 
and  in  that  respect  are  of  much  value  ;  but  according  to 
a  competent  authority  *'  judged  by  themselves  as  literary 
productions,  they  cannot  be  matched  anywhere  for  pe- 
dantry and  downright  absurdity.  Their  general  char- 
acter is  marked  by  shallow  and  insipid  grandiloquence, 
by  priestly  conceit  and  antiquarian  pedantry.'' 

4.  "  The  Aranyakas,  or  '  Treatises  of  the  Forests,' 
were  so  called,  as  Sayana,  '  an  Indian  critic,  informs 
us,  because  they  were  to  be  read  in  the  forest.'  It 
seems  as  if  they  had  been  intended  for  persons  ''  who 
after  having  performed  all  the  duties  of  a  student  and  a 
householder,  retire  from  the  world  to  the  forest  to  end 
their  days  in  the  contemplation  of  the  Deity.  In 
several  instances  the  Aranyakas  form  part  of  the  Brah- 
manas, and  they  are  thus  made  to  share  the  authority 
of  Srtiti,  or  revelation.  The  most  important  Upan- 
ishads,  which  are  full  of  philosophy  and  theology,  form 
part  of  the  Aranyakas,  and  (particularly  in  later  times) 
the  Aranyaka  was  considered  the  quintessence  of  the 
Yedas." 

"  The  Aranyakas  presuppose  the  existence  of  the 
Brahmanas,  and  may  be  considered  as  enlargements 
upon  them.  The  philosophical  chapters,  known  by  the 
name  of  Upanishads,  are  almost  the  only  portion  of 
Yedic  literature  which  is  extensively  read  to  this  day. 
They  are  supposed  to  contain  the  highest  authority  on 
which  the  various  systems  of  philosophy  in  India  rest. 
The  founders  of  the  various  systems,  if  they  have  any 


182  COMPARATIVE    EELTGION-. 

pretensions  to  orthodox j,  invariably  appeal  to  some 
passage  in  the  Upanishads,  in  order  to  substantiate 
their  own  reasonings.  However,  when  none  of  the 
ancient  Upanishads  could  be  found  to  suit  their  pur- 
pose (liberal  and  conflicting  as  they  often  are),  the 
founders  of  new  sects  had  no  scruple,  and  no  difiiculty 
in  composing  7iew  Upanishads  of  their  own.  This 
accounts  for  the  large  and  ever  increasing  number 
of  these  treatises,  the  most  modern  of  which  seem  now 
to  enjo}"  the  same  authority  as  the  really  ancient  and 
genuine.  The  original  Upanishads  had  their  places 
in  the  Brahmanas  and  Aranyakas,  but  chiefly  in 
the  latter."  It  is  in  these  productions  that  the  great 
philosophic  system,  which  attempts  to  harmonize  the 
conflicting  ingredients  of  Hindu  religion  had  its  be- 
ginning. 

5.  "  The  word  Sutra  literally  means  a  string  ;  and 
all  the  works  written  in  this  stylo,  on  subjects  the  most 
various,  are  nothing  but  one  uninterrupted  string  of 
short  sentences,  twisted  together  into  the  most  concise 
form.  Shortness  is  the  great  object  of  this  style  of 
composition,  and  it  is  a  proverbial  saying  among  the 
Pandits,  that  '  an  author  rejoiceth  in  the  economizing  of 
half  a  short  vowel  as  much  as  in  the  birth  of  a  son.' 
Every  doctrine  thus  propounded,  whether  grammar, 
metre,  law,  or  philosophy,  is  reduced  to  a  mere  skele- 
ton. All  the  important  points  and  joints  of  a  system 
are  laid  open  with  the  greatest  precision  and  clearness, 
but  there  is  nothing  in  these  works  like  connection  or 
development  of  ideas.  '  Even  the  apparent  simplicity 
of  the  design,'  as  Colebrooke  remarks,  '  vanishes  in  the 


I. LATER    HINDU    SCRIPTURES.  183 

perplexity  of  the  structure.  The  endless  pursuit  of 
exceptions  and  limitations  so  disjoints  the  general  pre- 
cepts, that  the  reader  cannot  keep  in  view  their  intended 
connection  and  mutual  relation.  He  wanders  in  an 
intricate  maze,  and  the  clue  of  the  labyrinth  is  contin- 
ually slipping  from  his  hands.'  There  is  no  life  or 
meaning  in  these  Sutras,  except  what  either  a  teacher 
or  running  commentary,  by  which  these  works  are 
usually  accompanied,  may  impart  to  them." 

In  the  Sutras  are  compacted  the  substance  of  '^  all 
the  knowledge  which  the  Brahmans  had  accumulated 
during  many  centuries  of  study  and  meditation  : ''  and 
their  form,  like  the  rules  in  a  school  book,  is  a  conveni- 
ence for  committing  to  memory,  most  likely  the  result 
of  a  long  continued  system  of  traditional  teaching. 

The  Sutras  are  sacred  writ,  but  not  revelation, 
"  In  the  dogmatic  language  of  orthodox  Hindus,  the 
works  which  contain  the  sruti  have  not  been  composed, 
but  have  only  been  seen  or  perceived  by  men,  i.  e.,  they 
have  been  revealed  to  them.  The  Sutras,  on  the  con- 
trary, although  based  on  the  Sruti,''  "  are  yet  avowedly 
composed  by  human  authors.  "Whenever  they  appear 
to  be  in  contradiction  with  the  Sruti,  their  authority 
is  at  once  overruled." 

"  This  distinction  has  ever  been  the  stronghold  of 
the  hierarchical  pretensions  of  the  Brahmans.  "We 
can  easily  understand  how  a  nation  might  be  led  to 
ascribe  a  superhuman  origin  to  their  ancient  national 
poetry,  particularly  if  consisting  chiefly  of  prayers  and 
hymns  addressed  to  their  gods.  But  the  reason  why 
the  prose  compositions  of  the   Brahmanas,  which  are 


184:  COMPARATIVE    RELIGION. 

evidently  so  much  more  modern  tlian  the  Mantras, 
were  allowed  to  participate  in  the  name  of  Sruti, 
could  only  have  been  because  it  was  from  these  the- 
ological compositions,  and  not  from  the  simple  old 
poetry  of  the  hymns,  that  a  supposed  divine  authority 
could  be  derived  for  the  greater  number  of  the  ambi- 
tious claims  of  the  Brahmans.  We  can  find  no  reason 
why  the  Sutras  should  not  also  have  been  ranked  as 
Sruti,  except  the  lateness  of  their  date,  if  compared 
with  the  Brahmanas,  and  still  more  with  the  Mantras." 

"  The  distinction  between  Sruti  (revelation)  and 
Smriti  (tradition)  had  been  established  by  the  Brah- 
mans previously  to  the  rise  of  Buddhism,"  and  their 
claim  of  a  divine  origin  for  the  Brahmanas  had  much 
to  do  with  the  schism  and  success  of  Buddha. 

6.  Law  or  Regulations.  Another  class  of  sacred 
scriptures  consists  ot  those  supplementary  to  the  Yedas 
and  called  the  Dharma  Sastras.  '*  These  belong  part- 
ly to  the  Brahmana  and  partly  to  the  Sutra  periods  of 
Sanskrit  literature,  and  consist  of 

1.  The  Yedanta  (end  or  scope  of  the  Yeda), 
under  which  name  there  is  an  ancient  work  in 
Sanskrit,  said  to  have  been  composed  about  two 
thousand  years  ago,  and  to  contain  an  abstract  or 
quintessence,  of  all  the  Yedas  united.  It  is  also  "  known 
as  the  Piirva  Mimansa,  that  is,  the  first,  or  most  an- 
cient inquiry,  in  opposition  to  the  Uttara,  or  Brahma 
Mimansa,  one  of  the  philosophical  systems." 

2.  The  four  supplementary  Yedas  (Upa-vedas) 
are  the  Ayus  w^hich  treats  of  diseases  and  medicine, 
with  practical  methods  of   treating  bodily  disorders ; 


I. LATER    HINDU   SCRIPTURES.  185 

second  the  Gandharva,  a  treatise  on  music,  third,  the 
Dhanus,  on  the  making  and  use  of  arms  and  imple- 
ments employed  by  theKshatrja  caste  ;  and  the  fourth, 
a  collection  of  various  treatises  on  sixty-four  mechani- 
cal arts,  for  the  improvement  of  such  as  exercise  them.'' 

3.  The  Yedangas,  (members  of  the  Yeda)  "are 
considered  as  in  some  sense  a  subordinate  part  of  the 
Yedas.  Six  sciences  are  treated  of  in  them ;  1.  Siksha, 
or  the  science  of  pronunciation  and  articulation;  2. 
Cliliandas,  prosody ;  3.  Yyakarana^  grammar  ;  4.  I^i- 
riilcta,  the  explanation  of  difficult  or  obscure  words  and 
phrases  that  occur  in  the  Yedas ;  5.  Kctlpa,  an  account 
of  religious  ceremonies;  Jyotisha,  on  astronomy  or 
astrology.  The  first  two  are  considered  as  necessary 
for  reading  the  Yeda ;  the  next  two  for  understanding 
it,  and  the  last  two  for  employing  it  at  sacrifices. 

The  Pixitisakhyas  treat  of  the  metre,  accent  and 
pronunciation  of  the  ancient  sacred  hymns,  and  lay 
down  the  rules  and  exceptions  systematically.  And 
the  whole  subject  of  Yedic  grammar  was  presented  in 
its  utmost  completeness  by  Panini. 

4.  The  Upangas,  or  additional  limbs,  are  four  in 
number,  viz.,  \\iq  Purdna^  or  history;  the  Nyaya,  oi 
logic  ;  the  Mimansa^  or  moral  philosophy ;  and  the 
Dharma  Sastra,  or  jurisprudence. 

5.  The  Parisishtas  are  a  class  of  works  intimately 
connected  with  the  Sutra  period,  although  of  a  later 
date  than  the  sutras,  and  of  secondary  importance. 
They  have,  however,  a  character  of  their  own,  and 
represent  a  distinct  period  of  Hindu  literature,  which, 
though  it  shows  clear  traces  of  intellectual  and  literary 


186  COMPARATIVE    EELIGION. 

degeneracy,  is  not  to  be  altogether  overlooked." 
"  Some  of  the  Parisishtas  profess  to  be  composed  by 
authors  whose  names  doubtless  belong  to  the  sutra 
period.''  Such  are  Saunaka  and  Katyayana.  The  style 
of  these  compositions  is  less  concise  than  that  of  the 
Sutras.  They  are  in  metre  :  and  there  is  a  collection 
of  Parisishtas  for  each  Yeda,  eighteen  being  attributed 
to  the  Yajur  Yeda.  The  Rig  and  Sama-Yedas  seem  not 
to  have  had  so  many,  but  their  number  is  uncertain. 
They  are  said  to  have  been  written  in  the  form  of  dia- 
logues, in  a  style  similar  to  that  of  the  Puranas." 
Though  unknown  to  the  ancient  grammarian,  Panini, 
it  appears  that  they  belong  to  the  Yedic  age  ;  but  may 
be  considered  as  the  very  last  outskirts  of  Yedic  lit- 
erature. Later  Sanskrit  books  are  concerned  with 
philosophy,  law,  criticism,  poetry,  and  mythology. 

From  the  beginning  of  the  work  of  classifying  the 
hymns,  all  through  this  process  of  Yedic  literature,  the 
controlling  sentiment  is  that  of  law,  as  inherent  in  that 
of  religion.  It  is  the  legal  element  of  religion  which 
finds  the  fullest  exposition,  in  order,  in  definition,  in 
precept,  in  formula,  in  ceremonies,  and  prescribed  duties. 
That  tendency  ripens  in  the  production  of  Dharma  Sas- 
tras,  or  law-books,  and  finally,  in  the  great  Manava- 
Dharma-Sastra  ;  or  as  it  is  commonly  called  the  "  Laws 
of  Manu.''  As  to  the  date  at  which  that  maturity  wao 
reached,  authors  differ  from  800,  to  1280  b.  c. 

The  work  alludes  to  earlier  codes  which  ha\e  now 
no  existence  save  in  as  far  as  incorporated  with  itself. 
Under  that  control  of  law,  the  subsequent  development 
of  the  Brahmanical  system  and  sacred  literature  grew 


n. — RELIGIOUS   CLASSES   AND   CASTES.  187 

up ;  and  subject  to  it  was  the  expansion  of  Hindu 
mythology  and  philosophy. 


11. 

EELIGIOUS  CLASSES  AND  CASTES. 

In  course  of  the  same  process  the  Hindu  people 
manifested  an  analogous  tendency  to  array  themselves 
into  classes,  and  to  create  and  accept  class  regulations. 
According  to  their  pursuits,  all  were  distributed  into  a 
few,  as  Brahmans,  Kshatriyas,  Yaisyas,  and  Sudras, 
great  classes  which  subsequently  divided  themselves 
into  many.  The  regulations  proper  to  each  became 
increasingly  numerous  and  stringent.  Brahmans  be- 
come the  priest  class.  But  the  priests  are  of  different 
orders  appropriated  to  different  offices,  as  Hotri,  Ud- 
gatri,  and  Adhvaryu-priests.  In  study  of  the  sacred 
books,  sects  arose  which  perpetuated  themselves  and 
their  prescribed  topics  and  methods,  for  long  periods 
of  time.  Certain  Sanhitas,  Brahmanas  and  Sutras  were 
made  the  specialties  of  as  many  different  Charanas, 
or  sects,  which  so  identified  themselves  with  their  work 
that  it  is  often  called  Cliarana.  These  Charanas  were 
all  of  the  priest  class.  The  bond  of  unity  in  an}^  one 
of  them  was  their  community  of  sacred  texts.  But 
high  rank  Hindus  were  also  classified  by  families  under 
the  name  of  Gotra,  or  Kula,  which  were  held  together 
by  real  or  imaginary  ties  of  blood,  and  by  special  fam- 
ily regulations  touching  the  duties  and  privileges  of 
religion.     Gotras,  or  eminent  families,  existed  among 


188  COMPARATIVE   EELIGION. 

Kshatrija^  and  Yaisyas  as  well  as  among  Brahmans. 
But  the  most  eminent  were  those  of  the  Brahmanic 
families  who  keep  the  sacred  fire,  who  are  supposed  to 
be  descended  from  the  so  called  seven  but  really  eiglit 
Rishis,  or  saints.  "  The  eight  Gotras  thus  descended 
are  subdivided  into  forty-nine  Gotras,  and  these  forty- 
nine  branch  off  into  a  still  greater  number  of  families.'' 

"A  Brahman,  who  keeps  the  sacrificial  fire,  is 
obliged  by  law  to  know  to  which  of  the  forty-nine  Gotras 
his  own  family  belongs,  and  in  consecrating  his  own 
fire  he  must  invoke  the  ancestors  who  founded  the 
Gotra  of  his  family.  Each  of  the  Gotras  claims  one, 
two,  three  or  five  ancestors,  and  the  names  of  these 
ancestors  constitute  the  distinctive  character  of  each 
Gotra.  A  list  of  these  forms  part  of  most  of  the  Kal- 
pa-sutras.''  These  lists,  accordingly,  had  a  practical 
bearing  on  two  most  important  acts  of  ancient  Brah- 
manic society,  viz.,  the  consecrating  of  the  sacrificial 
fire  and  marriage.  "  Persons  belonging  to  the  same 
Gotra,  or  tribe,  were  not  allowed  to  intermarry.  Yio- 
lation  of  that  law,  in  all  but  a  very  few  Gotras,  '*'  was 
considered  incest,  and  visited  with  severe  penance." 

Such  a  method  of  severe  distinctions  and  classifica- 
tion, of  the  people  extending  from  the  highest  to  the 
lowest,  and  interesting  every  upper  class  in  its  per- 
manence, from  a  view  to  class  privileges,  gradually 
while  ostensibly  conferring  honor,  fastened  down  and 
riveted  the  fetters  of  a  legal  bondage  upon  all. 


m. — BRAHMANICAL   PHILOSOPHY.  189 

III. 
BRAHMANICAL   PHILOSOPHY. 

Another  development  of  Hindu  religion  was  due 
to  the  philosophical  tendencies  of  the  Hindu  mind. 
Ancient  philosophy  early  shaped  itself  according  to  the 
views  of  six  different  schools,  which  were  not  so  much 
adverse  philosophic  systems,  as  progressive  stages  in 
the  teaching  of  the  same  system.  And  the  professed 
design  of  all  was  to  teach  the  method  by  which  eter- 
nal blessedness  might  be  secured  either  before  death 
or  after  it.  The  path  which  the  soul  is  to  arrive  at 
this  supreme  felicity  is  science,  or  knowledge.  "  The 
discovery  and  the  setting  forth  of  the  means  by  which 
this  knowledge  may  be  obtained,  is  the  object  of  the 
various  treatises  and  commentaries  which  Hindu  phi- 
losophy has  produced.'' 

The  six  schools,  Darsanas,  "  or  stages  of  that  philos- 
ophy are  the  l^yaya,  Yaiseshika,  Sankhya,  Yoga,  Ye- 
danta,  and  Mimansa  Darasna."  But  ^'  the  Yaiseshika 
being  in  some  sort  supplementary  to  the  Kyaya,  the 
two  are  familiarly  spoken  of  as  one  collective  system 
under  the  name  of  N'yaya ;  and  as  the  case  is  some- 
what similar  with  the  two  other  pairs,  it  is  customary 
to  speak  of  Hindu  philosophy  as  being  divisible  into 
the  Nyaya  the  Sankhya,  and  the  Yedanta  schools. 
These  three  systems,  if  we  follow  the  commentators, 
differ  more  in  appearance  than  in  reality,  and  hence 
they  are,  each  in  its  degree,  viewed  with  a  certain 
amount  of  favor  by  orthodox  Hindus.     Their  common 


190  COMPARATIVE    RELIGION. 

bond  of  union  is  their  implicit  acceptance  of  the  Ye- 
das,  which  however  they  explain  differently.  In  this 
respect,  and  on  this  ground,  they  unite  in  opposing 
Buddliism,  which  denies  the  authority  of  the  Yedas. 

These  three  systems  differ  from  one  another  in  the 
several  points  of  view  from  which  they  regard  tlie  Uni- 
verse,— or  things  in  general — as  standing  in  relation 
severally  to  sensation,  emotion,  and  intellection." 
*'  The  Naiyayika^  founding  on  the  fact  that  we 
have  various  sensations,  inquires  what  and  how  many 
are  the  channels  through  which  such  varied  knowledge 
flows  in  ?  Finding  there  arc  five  very  different  chan- 
nels, he  imagines  five  different  externals  adapted  to 
these.  Hence  his  theory  of  the  five  elements — the  ag- 
gregate of  what  the  Nyaya  regards  as  the  causes  of 
affliction. 

"The  Sankhya,  sti-uck  with  the  fact  that  we  have 
emotions — with  an  eye  to  the  question  whence  our  im- 
pressions cwne — inquires  their  quality.  Are  they 
pleasing,  displeasing,  or  indifferent  f  These  three 
qualities  constitute,  for  him,  the  external,  and  to  their 
aggregate  he  gives  the  name  of  Is^ature.  AVith  the 
Kaiyayika  he  agrees  in  wishing  that  we  were  well  rid 
of  all  three,  holding  that  things  pleasing  and  things 
indifferent,  are  not  less  incompatible  with  man's  chief 
end  than  things  positively  displeasing. 

"  Thus,  while  tlie  Nydya  allows  to  the  external  a 
substantial  existence,  the  Sanlchya  admits  its  existence 
only  as  an  aggregate  of  qualities ;  while  both  allow 
that  it  really  (eternally  and  necessarily)  exists. 

"  The  Vedantiny  rising  above  the  question  as  to 


III. BRAHMANICAL    PHILOSOPHY.  191 

what  is  pleasing,  displeasing,  or  indifferent,  asks  simply 
what  is  and  what  is  not.  The  categories  are  here  re- 
duced to  two — the  real  and  unreal.  The  categories  of 
the  Nyaya  and  the  Sankhja  were  merely  scafiblding 
for  reaching  this  pinnacle  of  philosophy.  The  implied 
foundation  was  in  all  respects  the  same,  viz.,  the 
Yeda." 

"  Thus  the  Nyaya  is  conveniently  introductory  to 
the  Sankhya,  and  the  Sankhya  to  the  Yedanta.  And  it 
is  in  this  order  that  in  Hindu  schools,  where  all  three 
are  taught,  the  learner  usually  takes  them  up.  The 
IS'yaya  is  the  exoteric  doctrine,  the  Sankhya,  a  step 
nearer  what  is  held  as  truth,  and  the  Yedanta  the  eso- 
teric doctrine,  or  the  naked  truth." 

In  making  this  distinction,  it  is  not  to  be  under- 
stood that  the  "  Nyaya  confines  itself  to  sensation,  ex- 
cluding emotion  and  intellection ;  nor  that  the  other 
systems  ignore  the  fact  of  sensation  ;  but  that  the  ar- 
rangement of  this  system  has  a  more  pointed  regard 
to  the  fact  of  the  five  senses  than  the  others  have, 
and  treats  the  external  more  frankly  as  a  solid  reality." 

It  is  a  system  which  undertakes  to  teach  the 
**  proper  method  of  arriving  at  that  knowledge  of  the 
truth,  the  fruit  of  which,  it  promises,  is  the  chief  end 
of  man."  ''  When  knowledge  of  the  truth  is  attained 
to,  false  notions  depart ;  on  their  departure,  the  'fault ' 
of  concerning  one's  self  about  any  external  object 
ceases;  thereupon  the  enlightened  sage  ceases  to  act j 
then,  there  being  no  actions  that  call  for  either  reward 
or  punishment,  there  is  no  occasion,  after  his  death,  for 
his  being  horn  again  to  receive  reward  or  punishment ; 


192  COMPAEATIYE    RELIGION. 

then  not  being  born  again,  so  as  to  be  liable  to  pain, 
there  is  no  room  for  ^ jpain^  and  the  absence  of  pain 
is  the  lN"yava  conception  of  the  Suimnmn  BonumP 

Between  sonl  and  body  the  distinction  made  by 
this  philosophy  is  that  of  different  entity,  and  the  re- 
duction of  the  latter  is  the  improvement  of  the  former 
by  emancipating  it  from  an  injurious  bondage.  Anoth- 
er source  of  evil  is  activity,  defined  "as  that  which 
originates  the  [utterance  of]  the  voice,  the  [cognitions 
of]  the  understanding,  and  the  [gestures  of]  the  body, 
and  is  regarded  as  the  cause  of  birth,  which  is  the 
cause  of  pain,  which  it  is  the  suimnum  honum  to  get 
permanently  rid  of."  "  It  is  through  our  own  '  fault ' 
that  we  are  active,''  and  "  our  faults  have  this  charac- 
teristic, that  they  cause  activity."  These  faults  are 
classed  under  the  heads  of  affection,  aversion,  and  sto- 
lidity, or  dehision,''  each  of  which  "  leads  to  ac- 
tions, the  recompense  of  which,  whether  good  or  evil, 
must  be  received  in  some  birth,  or  state  of  mundane 
existence,  to  the  postponement  of  the  great  end  of  en- 
tire emancipation.''  The  greatest  of  all  evils  from 
which  it  is  desirable  to  be  emancipated  is  transmigra- 
tion. To  escape  from  being  born  again  is  indispensa- 
ble to  the  highest  good,  and  is  to  be  obtained  by  "  ab- 
negation of  all  action,  good  or  bad." 

The  Yeseshika  is  more  mystical  and  metaphysical. 
Heligion  it  defines  as  "  Those  ceremonies  by  the  prac- 
tice of  which  the  knowledge  of  the  divine  nature  is  ob- 
tained, and  that  by  which  all  evil  is  forever  removed.'' 
Of  God  it  teaches  that  He  is  "  essentially  possessed  of 
wisdom  ;  that  He  is  the  ever  blessed  and  supremely 


m. — BKAHMANICAL   PHILOSOPHY.  193 

happy ;  and  that  in  all  His  works  and  His  will,  He 
is  irresistible  and  omnipotent." 

The  universe  it  distinguishes  from  God  and  ar- 
ranges under  its  component  parts.  And  matter  is  so 
far  an  evil,  that  separation  from  it  is  indispensable  to 
"complete  deliverance  from  sorrow,  and  the  enjoyment 
of  final  bliss." 

It  also  teaches  the  necessity  of  a  firm  belief  in  reli- 
gion ;  and  assumes  as  its  basis,  not  human,  but  divine, 
testimony  as  contained  in  the  sacred  scriptures  of  the 
Yeda.  Keligion  is  not  conceived  of  as  purely  spiritual, 
but  as  a  ritual,  to  the  existence  of  which  certain  instru- 
ments are  indispensable. 

''  By  the  knowledge  of  the  excellent  fruits  of  good 
actions  (as  those  are  connected  with  sacrifices,  ablutions, 
gifts,  etc.),  w^hen  perform.ed  with  a  fixed  and  ardent 
mind,  men  are  drawn  to  practice  the  duties  of  religion  ; 
and  by  a  knowledge  of  the  future  evil  consequences 
of  certain  actions  (such  as  visiting  forbidden  places, 
committing  injuries,  eating  forbidden  fruit,  etc.),  men. 
are  deterred  from  those  actions." 

In  treating  of  cause  and  effect,  proofs  are  adduced 
of  the  existence  of  God,  and  of  spirit  in  man  distinct 
from  the  corporeal  frame.  In  opposition  to  the  doc- 
trine that "  the  body  is  a  collection  of  atoms,  which 
contain  a  living  principle,  and  that  this  living  princi- 
ple is  not  something  separate  fi'om  the  body,  but 
inherent  in  atoms,  and  therefore  difi'used  through 
the  whole  body,"  it  is  objected  that  thereby  "you 
deny  the  existence  of  inanimate  matter.  For  if 
atoms  be  animate  and  this  be  an  atom-formed  world, 
9 


194  COMPARATIVE   RELIGION. 

then  all  matter  must  be  life  ;  for  this  is  a  settled  max- 
im, that  the  nature  of  the  cause  is  always  seen  in  the 
effect.  Why  then  do  we  not  see  matter  possessed  of 
life  ? " 

'Next,  from  the  ''existence  of  anxiety  arising  from 
desire  and  avei-sion  "  is  argued  "  the  existence  of  a 
spirit  separate  from  body  or  matter,  since  these  emo- 
tions are  excited  by  a  perception  of  the  good  or  evil 
arising  from  certain  things,  so  that  good  is  sought  and 
evil  is  avoided.  But  this  perception  of  the  good  and 
bad  results  of  different  actions,  and  the  anxiety,  occa- 
sioned by  this  perception,  to  embrace  that  which  pro- 
duces good  and  avoid  that  which  produces  evil,  are 
attributes  of  spirit.  And  as  we  find  these  perceptions 
and  this  anxiety  existing  in  ourselves,  we  infer  that 
they  must  exist  in  others,  since  they  possess  with  us  a 
common  nature,  and  from  thence  we  ascend  up  to  a 
first  cause  distinct  from  Matter." 

"  The  mode  of  matter  and  spirit  becoming  united 
is  next  discussed.  '  When  an  animal  soul,  through 
having  the  consequences  of  good  and  evil  actions  attach- 
ed to  it,  is  about  to  assume  human  birth,  it  is  united  to 
a  single  atom,  and  to  this  others  are  added,  till  a  regular 
body  is  formed.  All  material  things  are  composed  of 
atoms,  which  singly  are  invisible.'  Atoms  are  un- 
created, and  are  of  four  kinds,  from  which  arise  earth, 
water,  light,  and  air." 

*'  Some  Hindu  philosophers  plead  for  the  existence 
of  innumerable  minds  in  one  individual.  Others 
endeavor  to  establish  the  doctrine  of  five  minds  to 
agree  with  the  senses.     Kanada  founder  of  the  Yais- 


III. BRAHMANICAL    PHILOSOPHY.  195 

eshika  system,  contends  for  one  reasoning  faculty  in 
each  individual."  Mind  he  teaches  is  •*  a  single  power, 
but  is  possessed  of  five  faculties  corresponding  with 
the  senses,  by  which  its  faculties  are  multiplied.'' 

Sin  is  ascribed  to  the  effect  of  actions  in  a  former 
state  of  existence.  Habits  generated  in  some  previous 
stage  of  transmigration  transmit  to  the  human  being 
its  bias  to  wrong. 

As  respecting  religious  duties,  the  system  teaches 
that  in  the  *'  pursuit  of  secular  concerns  a  person  is 
not  to  expect  the  benefits  peculiar  to  a  future  state. 
Nor  in  the  duties  connected  with  the  invisible  world 
are  visible  fruits  to  be  sought.  Invisible  benefits 
refer  to  the  pleasures  of  heaven,  and  absorption  in 
Brahama.  The  duties  that  procure  invisible  benefits 
are  such  as  bathing  at  holy  places,  fasting  on  holy 
days,  the  study  of  the  Yeda  in  the  house  of  a  divine 
teacher,  offering  appointed  sacrifices,  and  in  general 
the  practice  of  asceticism.  "  Actions  are  religious  or 
otherwise,  according  to  the  motives  which  inspire  the 
performers." 

The  chief  aim  of  religion  is  to  obtain  liberation 
from  transmigratory  births.  Yaiseshika  teaches  that 
it  is  to  be  effected  by  listening  to  the  description  of 
spirit  contained  in  the  Sastra,  by  meditation,  by  the 
acquisition  of  the  knowledge  of  Yoga  (asceticism),  by 
perfect  fixedness  of  mind  and  correct  posture  during 
the  performance  of  Yoga,  by  restraining  the  breath, 
by  retaining  in  subjection  the  powers  of  the  body 
and  mind,  and  by  the  vision  of  spirit  in  the  animal 
soul.     Hence,  future  birth  is   wholly   prevented,  and 


196  COMPARATIVE   RELIGION. 

all  sorrow  annihilated ;  and  this  is  what  is  called  liber- 
ation. 

So  far,  Hindu  theology  issues  in  self-righteousness 
effected  by  asceticism  as  the  only  way  of  salvation 
from  sinful  desires  and  aversions.  From  that  funda- 
mental doctrine  the  Sankhya  system  has  no  dissent. 
It  makes,  however,  "  a  step  in  advance  of  the  I^yaya 
by  reducing  the  external  from  the  category  of  sub- 
stance to  that  of  quality.  Souls  alone  are,  in  the 
Sankhya,  regarded  as  substances ;  whatever  affects  the 
soul  being  arranged  under  the  head  of  a  quality — 
1.  pleasing;  2.  displeasing;  or  3.  indifferent.  This 
mode  of  viewing  the  Universe  may  be  designated  the 
emotional  view  of  things." 

The  word  Sankhya  means  '  numeral^  rational,  or 
discriminative.  The  system  promises  beatitudes  as 
the  reward  of  that  discrimination  which  rightly  dis- 
tinguishes between  soul  and  nature." 

Like  the  l^yaya,  the  Sankhya  is  presented  in  a  set 
of  aphorisms.  It  begins  by  defining  the  chief  aim  of 
human  life  as  being  *'  the  complete  cessation  of  pain." 
Pain  is  of  "  three  kinds,  1.  diseases,  griefs  etc.,  which 
are  intrinsic,  or  inherent  in  the  sufferer ;  2.  injuries 
from  ordinary  external  things;  and  3.  injuries  from 
things  supernatural  or  meteorological."  Kapila,  author 
of  the  Sankhya  system,  declares  "  that  the  bondage  un- 
der which  the  soul,  or  individual  man  groans,  is  due  to 
its  conjunction  with  nature,  and  this  bondage  is  merely 
seeming,  because  soul  is  ever  essentially  a  pure  and 
free  intelligence."  The  distinction  being  made  be- 
tween tlie  soul  and  the  mind,  and  bondage  residing  in 


III. BKAHMANICAL    PHILOSOPHY.  197 

the  mind,  that  of  the  soul  is  merely  a  reflection.  Lib- 
eration of  the  soul  from  this  ensnaring  contact  is,  ac- 
cordingly, to  be  effected  by  the  '^ discrimination"  ''of 
soul  as  contradistinguished  from  nature."  The  plural- 
ity of  souls  is  asserted ;  and  the  doctrine  of  annihila- 
tion explicitly  repudiated. 

Yoga,  or  asceticism,  not  introduced  but  systematical- 
ly taught  by  the  sage  Patanjali,  taught ''  that  the  Divine 
Spirit  and  the  soul  of  man  are  distinct :  that  the  for- 
mer is  free  from  passion,  but  not  the  latter:  that  God 
is  possessed  of  form,  and  capable  of  being  seen  by  the 
true  Yogi,  (i.  e.,  practicer  of  the  Yoga  rites  and  du- 
ties :)  that  He  is  placable,  glorious,  the  creator,  the 
preserver  and  the  regenerator  of  all  things :  that  the 
Universe  first  arose  from  His  will,  or  command,  and 
that  He  infused  into  the  system  a  power  of  perpetual 
progression ;  that  the  truth  of  things  was  discoverable 
by  the  senses,  by  experience,  comparison  and  revela- 
tion :  that  some  material  things  are  unchanged  and 
others  changeable,  and  that  the  latter  pass  through 
six  changes,  as  birth,  increase,  etc.,  that  everything 
originates  in  the  five  elements,  fire,  water,  etc., 
that  knowledge  is  of  five  sorts,  certain,  uncertain, 
etc. ;  that  there  are  ^yq  kinds  of  men,  viz.,  those  who 
are  governed  by  their  passions,  the  wrathful,  the  be- 
nevolent, the  pious,  and  those  who  are  freed  from 
wordly  attachments,  "  and  finally  that  emancipation  is 
to  be  obtained  by  the  practice  of  Yoga,  or  perfect  ab- 
straction of  mind." 

Yoga  is  further  explained  by  ancient  commenta- 


198  COMPARATIVE    EELTGIOX. 

tors  as  "  the  restraining  of  the  mind,  and  confining  it 
to  internal  meditations." 

"When  the  mind  is  then  confined  within,  it  be- 
comes assimilated  to  the  Being  whom  it  seeks  to 
know ;"  and  the  object  of  Yoga  is  by  certain  ascetic 
practices  to  detain  the  mind  npon  God,  and  thereby 
prevent  the  evils  of  natural  life.  The  directions  for 
those  practices  are  numerous  and  particular.  They 
include  seclusion,  silence,  inactivity,  and  as  far  as 
possible  suppression  of  breathing.  The  Yogi  must 
"  endeavor  to  fix  the  understanding  by  some  act  of 
the  senses,  e.  g.,  he  must  place  his  sight  and  thoughts 
on  the  tip  of  his  nose,  by  which  he  will  perceive 
smell ;  then  bring  his  mind  to  the  tip  of  his  tongue, 
when  taste  will  be  realized ;  and  afterwards  fix  his 
thoughts  on  the  root  of  his  tongue,  by  which  sound 
will  be  suggested."  Thus  it  was  expected  that  the 
spirit  would  be  gradually  abstracted  from  all  the  agi- 
tation of  desires  and  aversions  wherein  consists  sin. 
He  will  be  tranquil,  impassive.  '^  His  mind  will  be 
fixed  whose  intercourse  with  secular  objects  is  like 
that  of  a  person  in  a  deep  sleep,  who,  without  the 
active  union  of  the  senses,  partakes  of  perfect  happi- 
ness. He  who  meditates  on  God,  placing  his  mind  on 
the  sun,  moon,  fire,  or  any  other  luminous  body,  or 
within  his  heart,  or  at  the  bottom  of  his  throat,  or  in 
the  centre  of  his  skull,  will  by  afterwards  ascending 
from  those  gross  images  of  the  Deity  to  the  glorious 
original,  secure  fixedness  of  mind.''  *'  He  thus  be- 
comes identified  with  the  Deity ;  that  is,  visible 
objects,   the   operations    of    the   understanding,   and 


III. — BEAHMANICAL    PHILOSOPHY.  199 

personal  identity,  become  absorbed  in  the  Being  con- 
templated, in  the  same  manner  as  the  crystal  receives 
the  image  of  whatever  is  reflected  upon  it."  The 
blessedness  of  Yoga  is  to  be  secured  by  "  relinquish- 
ment of  all  happiness  in  secular  things,  and  by  that 
meditation  which  identifies  every  religious  formula, 
every  sacred  utensil,  and  every  offering  with  the  ob- 
ject of  worship.  This  object  is  the  supreme  Being, 
represented  as  being  free  from  the  fruit  of  works,  i.  e., 
exempt  from  birth  among  any  of  the  forms  of  matter, 
from  increase  or  decrease  of  life,  and  from  enjoyment 
or  suffering  as  the  consequence  of  actions.  To  his 
■will  all  creatures  owe  their  preservation.  He  is  omni- 
potent, eternal,  the  omniscient  fountain  of  knowledge, 
who  presides  over  all  events. 

This  Being  the  Yogi  must  intensely  and  continu- 
ously meditate  on,  while  repeating  constantly  his 
sacred  name.  Thus  he  gradually  loses  his  worldly 
attachment,  the  quality  of  goodness  obtains  a  clearer 
manifestation  in  him,  and  he  is  brought  to  resemble 
God,  and  thus  he  obtains  also  deliverance  from  the 
effects  of  birth,  and  final  emancipation." 

"  That  he  may  not  fall  from  the  elevation  he  has 
attained,  the  Yogi  still  seeks  God  by  meditation  on 
his  names,  or  on  the  import  of  those  names,  or  on  his 
existence,  after  which  he  loses  all  remembrance  of  the 
names  of  the  Deity,  and  of  their  import,  and  God  is 
realized  in  the  mind  as  pure  light,  and  to  this  succeeds 
a  state  of  mind  similar  to  self-annihilation." 

Such  perfection  is  not  to  be  expected  of  all  men. 
It  is  the  attainment  of  the  saint;  the  mature  victory 


200  COMPARATIVE   RELIGION. 

of  the  Hindu  monk.  Other  des^rees  of  blessedness 
are  marked  out  for  secular  persons,  and  which  are  to 
be  reached  bj  the  practice  of  similar  austerities,  "  the 
repetition  of  the  names  of  God,  or  of  incantations 
without  the  desire  of  benefit,  referring  all  to  the  will 
of  God."  They  are  to  seek  victory  over  pain  and  its 
causes,  which  are  of  five  kinds,  viz.,  illusion,  conscious- 
ness of  self-existence,  passion,  religious  disgust,  and 
love  of  life.  The  last  mentioned  is  to  be  overcome 
by  turning  the  thoughts  inward,  which  will  infallibly 
secure  meditation  upon  God.  The  other  causes  of 
pain  are  to  be  overcome  by  fixing  the  mind  on  God, 
and  by  cultivating  benevolent  feelings  towards  men 
in  every  condition  of  life." 

This  is  not  so  high  a  degree  of  blessedness  as  that 
of  the  saint.  But  then  it  is  also  taught  that  to  ''secu- 
lar persons  the  consequences  of  illusion  do  not  pro- 
duce sorrow  as  they  do  to  the  Yogi.  The  former  are 
likened  to  those  members  of  the  body  which  remain 
at  ease,  while  the  visual  faculty,  from  some  accident 
sufiers  excruciating  pain ;  the  Yogi  is  the  eye  of  the 
body,''  But  in  the  secular  as  in  the  saint  the  ulti- 
mate blessedness  kept  in  view — the  sum  of  salvation, 
is  deliverance  from  the  necessity  of  being  born  again, 
in  the  appalling  cycle  of  transmigrations. 

The  Yedanta  system  "  taught  that  the  best  idea 
we  can  form  of  God  is  that  he  is  hght  or  glory.  At 
the  same  time  it  maintained  that  God  is  a  spirit,  with- 
out passions,  separate  from  matter ;  that  he  is  pure 
wisdom  and  happiness;  one  without  a  second,  ever- 
lasting, incomprehensible,  and  unchangeable  ;  and  that, 


III. BRAHMANICAL    PHILOSOPHY.  201 

after  describing  all  modes  of  existence,  lie  is  that  which, 
is  none  of  these.'' 

The  universe,  it  taught,  was  formed  by  the  five 
elements,  viz.,  air,  fire,  water,  earth,  and  aether  (or 
vacuum  :)  that  the  world,  being  destitute  of  life,  was 
liable  to  dissolution ;  that  God  himself  was  the  sole 
possessor  of  life,  and  that  one  divine  spirit  pervaded 
the  whole  animated  creation." 

It  taught  creation  of  atoms,  and  that  thence  "  the 
Creator  caused  the  first  forms  of  things  to  arise." 
Salvation  for  men  was  deliverance  from  matter  and 
re-absorption  in  the  Divine  Spirit ;  and  that  was  to  be 
obtained  in  the  following  manner  : — First,  the  devotee 
must  read  through  the  Yedas.  He  must  suffer  no 
desire  of  advantage  to  mix  with  his  religious  services  ; 
must  renounce  everything  forbidden  in  the  Sastras ; 
must  render  himself  pure  by  the  performance  of  daily 
devotions,  duties  for  the  good  of  others,  atonements, 
and  divine  contemplation  ;  must  acquaint  himself  with 
the  unprofitableness  of  that  which  is  fleeting  and 
transitory,  and  the  value  of  that  which  is  unchangeable 
and  eternal ;  must  renounce  all  hope  of  present  or 
future  rewards,  gain  the  complete  mastery  over  all 
his  sensual  organs,  and  meditate  on  God  in  all  the 
forms  and  media  by  which  he  is  made  known  to  his 
creatures.  By  the  power  of  these  meditations  and 
austerities  the  soul  will  leave  the  body  through  the 
basilar  suture,  and  ascend  to  the  heaven  of  Agni  (the 
god  of  fire),  from  thence,  in  succession,  to  various  other 
Heavens,  till,  having  obtained  in  the  heaven  of  Varuna, 
an  aerial  body,  the  devotee  will  ascend  to  the  heaven 
9* 


202  COMPARATIVE    RELIGION. 

of  Brahma,  and  after  the  expiration  of  one  hundred 
years  of  Brahma  and  that  God's  absorption  into  the 
divine  spirit,  the  devotee  likewise  will  obtain  the  same 
state  of  felicity.'' 

Such  was  gradual  emancipation.  Immediate  eman- 
cipation was  to  be  secured  only  by  divine  wisdom. 
But  in  order  that  divine  wisdom  should  exist  in  the 
mind,  all  consciousness  of  outward  things  must  be  ex- 
pelled by  meditation  on  the  one  supreme  Spirit. 
"When  that  attainment  was  made  the  soul  would  enjoy 
emancipation  even  in  a  bodily  state. 

The  radical  idea  of  the  Yedanta  system  is  the  es- 
sential identity  of  all  being.  To  believe  the  opposite 
is  the  supposed  root  of  evil.  When  the  dictum  "  that 
art  thou,"  i.e.,  Thou — whosoev^er  thou  art — art  the 
one,''  has  been  rightly  understood  and  accepted,  the 
accepter  of  it  changing  the  '  Thou'  to  the  first  person, 
reflects  thus — '  I  am  the  one.'  This  is  so  far  well ;  but 
he  must  finally  get  rid  of  the  habit  of  making  even 
himself  an  object  of  thought.  There  must  be  no  ob- 
ject. What  was  previously  the  subject  must  now  re- 
main alone — an  entity,  a  thought,  a  joy  ;  but  these 
three  being  one  only — "the  existent  joy  thought." 

Such  an  increasingly  abstract  philosophy  operating 
within  the  field  of  rebVion  and  beins^  at  the  same  time 
of  the  nature  of  sacerdotal  law,  went  to  build  up  the 
importance  of  monasticism  and  the  rule  of  the  sacerdo- 
tal orders ;  and  to  establish  that  rule  over  body  and 
soul  of  all  who  believed  in  it,  for  time  and  eternity. 

In  the  Mimansa  system  it  was  taught  that  ''  God  is 
to  be  worshipped  only  through  the  incantations  of  the 


III. BEAHMANICAL    PHILOSOPHY.  203 

Yedas  ;  that  the  Yedas  were  uncreated,  and  contained 
in  themselves  the  proofs  of  their  own  divinity,  the 
very  words  of  which  are  unchangeable.  Its  reason- 
ings on  the  nature  of  material  things  were  similar  to 
those  *'  of  the  Nyaya  philosophy,  insisting  that  truth 
is  capable  of  the  clearest  demonstration,  without  the  pos- 
sibility of  mistake.  Creation,  preservation  and  destruc- 
tion are  represented  as  regulated  by  the  merit  and  de- 
merit of  works,"  while  the  "  doctrine  of  the  Universe"  is 
rejected.  It  is  maintained  that  the  images  of  the  gods 
were  not  real  representations  of  those  beings,  but  only 
given  to  assist  the  mind  of  the  worshipper  ;  that  the 
mere  forms  of  worship  had  neither  merit  nor  demerit 
in  them  ;  and  that  the  promises  of  the  Sastra  to  per- 
sons who  presented  so  many  offerings,  so  many  pray- 
ers, etc.,  were  only  given  as  allurements  to  duty." 

The  person  who  sought  final  emancipation,  was  di- 
rected "  to  cherish  a  firm  belief  in  the  Yedas,  as  well 
as  persuasion  of  the  benefits  of  religion,  and  the  desire 
of  being  engaged  in  the  service  of  the  gods  ;  and 
then  by  entering  upon  the  duties  of  religion,  and  by 
degrees  ascending  through  the  states  of  a  student,  a 
secular,  and  a  hermit,  he  would  be  sure  to  obtain  final 
absorption  in  Brahama." 

Eeligion  is  described  as  "  That  which  secures 
happiness."  It  is  incumbent  upon  man  to  "  attend  to 
the  duties  of  religion,  not  only  on  this  account,  but  in 
obedience  to  the  commands  of  God."  Forms  of  praise, 
motives  to  duty,  and  religious  observances  are  aux- 
iliaries to  the  divine  law,  and  have  therefore  a  rela- 
tive sanctity  and  obligation." 


204:  COMPARATIVE   RELIGION. 

"  Those  actions  from  wliicli  future  happiness  will 
arise  are  called  religions,  or  good,  because  productive 
of  haj)piness  ;  and  those  which  tend  to  future  misery 
are  called  evil  on  account  of  their  evil  fruits."  Hence, 
according  to  this  system,  "  actions  of  themselves  have 
in  them  neither  good  nor  evil.  Their  nature  can  only 
be  inferred  from  the  declarations  of  the  Yeda  respect- 
ing them,  or  from  future  consequences.  The  Hindus 
appear  to  have  no  just  idea  of  moral  evilJ^ 

With  perhaps  the  exception  of  the  Ramayana,  the 
other  great  works  of  Hindu  literature  are  the  pro- 
ductions of  later  dates,  subsequent  to  the  rise  of  Bud- 
dhism. 


lY. 

PROGRESS    OF   W^ORSHIP    IN   INDIA. 

The  testimonies  now  adduced  sufficiently  declare 
the  nature  and  tendency  of  development  in  the  his- 
tory of  Hindu  religion.  Though  checked  for  a  time 
by  Buddhism,  its  later  progress  followed  the  same 
direction,  by  its  own  inner  cyclic  movement,  to  the 
last  extreme. 

1.  The  primitive  central  point  of  theism,  belief  in 
one  Supreme  Being,  is  neA^er  abandoned.     But 

2.  The  idea  that  his  works  in  nature  are  mani- 
festations of  himself  leads  to  the  belief  that  he  divides 
himself  into  various  gods,  yet  retaining  his  identity  in 
all. 

From  these  points  two  different  lines  of  develop- 
ment proceeded. 


IV. PROGEESS    OF    WOESHIP    IN    INDIA.  205 

1.  Personifications  of  divine  powers  hardened  into 
separate  and  real  personalities,  before  the  common 
mind.  The  figurativeness  of  the  divine  names  was, 
in  course  of  time,  popularly  lost  sight  of,  and  the 
names  used  purely  as  designating  different  gods,  pre- 
siding in  dilierent  kingdoms  of  nature.  And  these 
multiplied  to  correspond  to  the  multiplicity  of  prov- 
inces in  nature,  and  otherwise,  filled  creation  with 
spiritual  personages. 

By  a  similar  process,  the  diff'erent  gods  were  as- 
signed their  respective  symbols,  and  these  embodied 
in  images  to  which  worship  was  paid  as  to  the  god  him- 
self. Polytheism  is  not  necessarily  idolatry,  though  it 
tends  naturally  in  that  direction.  Hindus  of  Yedic 
times  were  to  some  extent  polytheists  ;  but  not  idola- 
ters. 'No  images  were  used  by  them  of  the  gods  they 
adored.  In  later  times,  the  symbol  came  to  be  deemed 
the  likeness  of  the  god,  animated  by  him,  and  thence 
to  be  the  real  embodiment  of  him,  who  was  worshipped 
in  it. 

2.  On  the  other  hand,  the  originally  sole  supreme 
Being  is  progressively  further  removed  from  the  life 
of  man.  His  manifestations  take  his  place.  The 
Yedic  gods,  Yaruna  and  Indra,  appear  with  all  the 
sovereignty  of  godhead.  But  as  divine  persons  in- 
crease in  number,  and  cease  to  appear  as  supreme,  so 
they  are  conceived  of  as  further  separated  from  the 
Supreme  Being,  until  there  grows  up  a  hierarchy  of 
deities  of  different  ranks,  with  the  One  Great  God  over 
all,  essentially  in  all,  but  not  personally  anywhere. 

Of  this  hierarchy  the  humbler  are  the  nearest  to 


206  COMPARATIVE    RELIGION. 

human  life,  and  take  most  interest  in  it ;  while  the 
supreme  God  is  so  far  away,  so  exalted  above  the 
cares  of  men  that  men  cannot,  or  dare  not,  hope  that 
any  appeal  to  him  will  receive  the  least  attention. 
He  exists  in  a  state  of  inactive  blessedness  from  and  to 
all  eternity,  and  is  in  and  comprehends  all  things,  with- 
out being  moved  to  an  interest  in  anything. 

Thus  the  originally  paternal  God — God  whom 
men  called  Father — is  erroneously  exalted  into  a  vis- 
ionary existence,  and  imaginary  beings  are  endued 
with  reality,  and  put  into  his  place,  and  this  progres- 
sively more  and  more  until  he  is  actually  removed  from 
all  the  love  and  veneration  of  men,  and  ceases  to  be  an 
object  of  worship  altogether. 

Parallel  with  this  theological  development,  philoso- 
phy speculating  upon  existing  belief,  at  its  different 
stages,  rendered  each  successive  step  plausible  to  the 
reason.  It  appears  that  philosophy  did  not  form  the 
national  religion,  but  in  course  of  time,  introduced 
itself  into  interpretation  of  the  sacred  books  ;  and  sub- 
sequently took  its  place  as  the  sole  expounder  of  all 
the  elements  of  religion  as  they  grew.  It  was  the  light 
by  which  the  Priesthood  reconciled  their  religion  to 
their  reason.  The  growth  of  polytheism  and  idolatry 
is  from  and  among  the  populace,  slowly  and  impercep- 
tibly ;  and  no  doubt  in  those  early  ages  among  that  re- 
ligious people  they  grew  only  as  fast  as  they  were  earn- 
estly believed  ;  the  faith  of  the  priesthood  expanded 
the  range  of  philoso2:)hy  to  reconcile  all  with  a  rational 
system  of  thinking. 

But  an  everlasting,  infinite  and  all-pervading  God, 


IV. PROGRESS    OF    WORSHIP    IN    INDIA.  207 

wlien  divested  uf  aifections  and  of  personality,  other- 
wise than  as  manifested  in  the  ten  thousand  myriad 
phases  of  created  existence,  becomes  merely  the  essen- 
tial substance  and  spirit  of  being.  Tens  of  thousands 
of  deities  as  different  manifestations  of  one,  when  those 
manifestations  represent  all  known  kingdoms  and  prov- 
inces of  nature,  lead,  by  a  process  of  reasoning,  to  the 
conclusion  that  all  things  are  God,  and  that  God  and 
the  universe  are  identical.  Of  all  systems  of  Pantheism, 
the  most  consistent  and  unforced,  the  most  rational  in 
its  growth  and  conclusions  was  that  of  the  Hindu. 

It  lurked,  though  unperceived,  in  tlie  very  incipiency 
of  their  mythology.  The  figurative  designation  of 
divine  beings  from  powers  of  nature  contained  occultly 
a  principle,  which  a  consistent  philosophy  could  scarce- 
ly fail  to  unfold  as  a  pantheistic  unity.  In  China  that 
tendency  was  checked  and  counterbalanced  by  a  myth- 
ology of  ancestors ;  in  Egypt  by  a  pantheon  of  local 
deities,  each  sole  for  his  proper  city  or  district ;  while 
the  one  common  god  over  all  was  not  a  mere  generali- 
zation of  all  pervading  law,  but  the  monarch  of  the 
universe,  as  imaged  in  the  sun,  whose  type  upon 
earth  was  Pharaoh.  Pantheism  was  far  from  unknown 
among  the  priesthood  of  Egypt;  it  appears  distinct- 
ly in  a  hymn  to  the  Deity,  recently  published  from  a 
large  Hieratic  writing  *  of  the  twentieth  dynasty  and 
bearing  the  name  of  Kameses  IX.  ;  but  it  was  not  in 
the  basis  of  the  national  faith.  In  India,  it  was  the 
natural  fruit  of  religious  thinking  about  Deity,  from 
the  first,   conceived   of  as  operating  in  and  through 

*Publislied  with  a  translation  by  Paul  Pierret,  Paris,  1873. 


208  COMPARATIYE   KELIGIOI^'. 

nature,  and  expressing  Himself  in  the  operations  of 
nature. 

Accordingly  Yaruna,  the  ancient  god,  who  used  to 
come  down  and  reside  with  potent  and  paternal  be- 
nevolence among  men,  is  forgotten.  Altars  no  longer 
smoke  in  his  service.  Ko  longer  is  prayer  or  adoration 
offered  to  him.  Brahma  is  generalized  into  the  neuter 
Brahm,  and  relegated  by  Philosophy  to  an  infinite  dis- 
tance, and  a  vast  duration  of  inactivity ;  while  as 
Brahma  lie  merely  retains  his  place  as  a  traditional, 
but  unworshipped  member  of  the  Triad.  Deity,  as  far 
as  concerned  in  human  affairs,  and  approachable  by 
human  worship,  now  centred  in  the  great  Triad  of  the 
Pantheistic  cycle,  Brahma,  Yishnu,  and  Siva,  from  the 
last  of  whom  spring  two  others,  Durga  and  Kali,  for- 
ever controlling  the  activities  of  being  in  creation, 
preservation,  destruction  and  regeneration.  And  Deity 
was  accepted  as  coming  down  to  the  passions,  as  well 
as  the  interests  of  men  in  the  incarnations  of  Yishnu, 
and  the  manifold  characters  assumed  by  them.  To 
these  gods  were  added  their  corresponding  energies ; 
and  thus  new  elements  were  added  to  the  multiplica- 
tion of  gods.  And  the  rites  and  ceremonies  of  worship 
were  varied  or  increased  according  to  the  character  of 
him  to  whom  it  was  offered. 

Before  the  rise  of  Buddhism,  the  Hindu  religion 
had  become  practically  polytheistic  and  idolatrous ;  and 
theoretically,  to  the  few,  a  system  of  pantheism. 

The  doctrine  of  life  was,  to  all  classes,  that  of  ema- 
nation from  impersonal  Deity  into  a  vast  and  dreary 
circle  of  transmigrations.     Yice   was  punished  by  a 


IV. — PEOGRESS   OF   WORSHIP   IN   INDIA.  209 

transfer  to  a  lower  grade  of  existence ;  virtue,  by  eleva- 
tion to  one  of  a  higher  degree  ;  and  the  blessedness  to 
be  expected  vras  re-absorption  into  Deity  impersonal 
and  unconscious. 

Practical  virtue  was  not  overlooked,  but  the  princi- 
pal demands  of  religion  consisted  in  rites,  ceremonies, 
and  acts  of  asceticism,  many  of  which  were  imposed  by 
law ;  and  others  might  be  voluntarily  observed  with 
corresponding  increase  of  merit.  By  these  means, 
more  than  by  common  virtue,  were  the  rewards  of  a 
future  life  to  be  earned. 

A  universally  prevailing  belief  in  transmigration  of 
souls  made  the  present  life,  with  its  utmost  sufferings, 
appear  of  little  moment  except  in  its  relation  to  the 
stao:es  of  existence  which  were  to  follow.  In  its  brevitv, 
it  was  as  nothing  in  the  eyes  of  the  Hindu,  compared 
with  the  stupendous  cycle  of  hundreds  and  thousands 
of  years,  in  which  he  might  have  to  pass  through  one 
birth  after  another  into  as  many  different  states  of  be- 
ing. The  earnest  believer  contemplated  such  a  future 
with  the  gloomiest  apprehensions,  and  was  willing  to 
submit  to  any  amount  and  degree  of  austerities,  that 
thereby  he  might  step  through  death  immediately  in- 
to the  bosom  of  Brahm,  where  he  should  neither  en- 
joy nor  suffer  any  more,  and  never  be  born  again. 

The  naturally  religious  spirit  of  the  Hindu  was 
crushed  into  bondage  under  the  Brahmanical  priesthood 
wielding  the  power  of  such  convictions.  And  the  priest- 
hood itself  was  as  completely  controlled  by  them  as 
were  the  people.  For  their  faith  was  no  fiction  to  either. 

Hence  Hindus,  even  more  than  Egyptians,  lived  in 


210  COMPARATIVE   EELIGTON. 

their  religion,  and  with  a  view  to  its  promises  of  a  fu- 
ture state.  All  present  things,  to  them,  were  illusory, 
mere  seem.ing  and  deceiving.  The  only  reality  was 
all-pervading  Deity.  Transient  forms,  mere  appearan- 
ces, why  should  they  be  recorded  ?  History  was  noth- 
ing ;  and  the  unseen  world  was  all. 


y 


PROGRESS  OF    EGYPTIAN  ST3IB0L1SM. 

"Whatever  immediate  effect  the  exode  of  Israel  may 
have  had  upon  the  Egyptian  people,  it  was  not  one 
of  permanent  change  in  their  religious  convictions. 
If  alarmed  for  a  time  by  the  wonderful  concomitants 
of  that  event,  they  soon  returned  to  their  former  prac- 
tices and  belief. 

The  primary  element  of  Egyptian  polytheism,  con- 
sisting in  each  of  the  great  cities  having  its  own  sin- 
gle impersonation  of  Deity,  besides  giving  the  whole 
country,  when  united,  many  gods,  unfolded  itself  also 
into  triads,  each  consisting  of  a  father,  a  mother  and 
a  son.  ''Each  triad  was  w^orshipped  in  the  sanctuary 
of  one  of  the  capital  cities  of  the  nomes,  and  no  two 
cities  worshipped  the  same  triad,  ^ow  the  rank  held 
by  the  triad  enshrined  in  the  sanctuary  in  the  scale  of 
the  divine  emanations,  was  in  direct  relation  with  the 
political  and  administrative  importance  of  the  city. 
We  can  scarcely  find  even  two  or  three  exceptions  to 
the  rule,  that  when  cities  of  great  importance  in  very 
ancient  times,  and  where  a  worship  had  been  officially 


V. PROGRESS    OF    EGYPTIAN    SYMBOLISM.  211 

constituted,  lost  their  old  importance,  the  gods,  who 
were  there  worshipped,  lost  their  rank  in  the  divine 
hierarchy. 

The  supreme  triad  was  that  of  Thebes,  composed 
of  Amen-ra  (Amen  the  sun),  who  had  become  officially 
the  greatest  god  of  Egypt,  from  the  time  that  the 
twelfth  dynasty  established  its  native  city  as  the  capi- 
tal of  the  country  ;  Maut,  the  divine  mother  far  ex- 
cellence; and  Chons,  son  of  Amen,  who  was  also  a 
form  of  Amen  himself;  for  in  these  groups  of  divini- 
ties the  son  is  always  identified  with  his  father.  Amen 
is,  however,  the  most  elevated,  the  most  spiritual  form 
of  the  deity  presented  by  the  Egyptian  priests  for  the 
adoration  of  the  crowds  in  the  temples.  He  is  the  in- 
visible and  incomprehensible  god  ;  his  name  means '  the 
hidden ;'  he  is  in  fact  the  mysterious  power  who  cre- 
ated, preserved  and  governed  the  world.  An  invalua- 
ble passage  in  the  Ritual  distinctly  represents  him  as 
the  original  and  only  first  principle,  the  other  divine 
personages  being  merely  his  attributes  or  emanations. 
'  Amen-Ra'  it  is  there  said  (chap  xvii),  '  is  the  creator 
of  his  members  ;  they  become  the  other  gods  who  are 
associated  with  him.' 

The  parent  god  in  the  triad  of  Memphis  was  Phtah, 
the  second  demiurgus,  the  personification  of  creative 
energy  (but  inferior  in  the  scale  of  emanations  to 
Chnuphis),  lord  of  justice,  and  regulator  of  the  worlds, 
believed  as  the  author  of  the  visible  universe  ;  his  at- 
tributes, however,  show  entire  confusion  between  the 
creator  and  the  created,  between  the  author  of  order  in 
the  world  and  chaos.     His  wife  was  Pasht,  the  great 


212  COMPARATIVE   RELIGION. 

goddess  of  Bubastis,  sometimes  with  a  lion's  and  some- 
times a  cat's  head,  considered  to  he  the  avenger  of 
crimes,  and  also  one  of  the  forms  of  Mant.  The  sun 
was  considered  her  son  in  the  sanctuary  of  the  old  cap- 
ital of  the  primitive  dynasties. 

Month,  with  the  hawk's  head,  was  the  terrible  and 
hostile  form  of  the  sun,  when  his  rays  strike  like  ar- 
rows and  are  sometimes  fatal.  He  was  specially  wor- 
shipped at  Hermonthis,  with  the  goddess  Ritho,  his 
wife,  and  their  son  Harphre  (Horns  the  sun),  another 
example  of  the  identity  of  the  divine  father  and  son. 

But  of  all  these  triads,  the  most  closely  related  to 
humanity  in  external  form  and  worship,  although  the 
conception  was  one  of  the  most  exalted,  was  that  of 
Osiris,  Isis  and  Horus,  who  were  the  objects  of  uni- 
versal worship  in  all  parts  of  Egypt.  They  were  said 
to  be  the  issue  of  the  god  Set,  the  pers.onilication  of 
the  earth,  and  of  the  goddess  Xut,  the  vault  of  heaven. 
Osiris,  said  the  tradition,  had  manifested  himself  to  men 
and  had  reigned  in  Egypt.  The  whole  of  the  legend 
of  his  death,  from  the  violence  of  Set,  of  his  resurrec- 
tion, and  of  the  vengeance  taken  by  his  son  Horus  on 
his  enemies,  was  said  to  have  taken  place  on  earth; 
and  every  city  on  the  banks  of  the  Nile  professed  to 
have  been  the  scene  of  one  of  the  episodes  of  this  great 
drama. 

Symbolism  was  the  very  essence  of  the  genius  of 
the  Egyptian  nation,  and  of  their  religion.  The  abuse 
of  that  tendency  produced  the  grossest  and  most  mon- 
strous perversion  of  the  external  and  popular  worship 
in  the  land  of  Mizraim.     To  symbolize  the  attributes, 


V. PEOGEESS    OF    EGYPTIAN    SYMBOLISM.  213 

the  qualities  and  nature  of  the  various  deities  of  their 
pantheon,  the  Egyptian  priests  had  recourse  to  animals. 
The  bull,  the  cow,  the  ram,  the  cat,  the  ape,  crocodile, 
hippopotamus,  hawk,  ibis,  scarabseus,  and  others,  were 
each  emblems  of  a  divine  personage."  The  god  was 
represented  under  the  figure  of  that  animal,  or  by 
the  head  of  the  animal  with  the  human  body.  But  the 
inhabitants  of  the  banks  of  the  Nile  preferred  to 
pay  their  worship  to  living  representatives  of  their 
gods  rather  than  to  images  of  stone  or  metal,  "  and  they 
found  these  representatives  in  the  animals  chosen  as 
emblems  of  the  idea  expressed  by  the  conception  of 
each  god. 

*'  Hence  arose  that  worship  of  sacred  animals  which 
appeared  so  strange  and  ridiculous  to  the  Greeks  and 
Komans.  Each  of  these  animals  was  carefully  tended 
during  its  life  in  the  temple  of  the  god  to  whom  it  was 
sacred,  and  after  death  its  body  was  embalmed." 

*'  For  those  who  understood  the  basis  of  their  reli- 
gion, those  sacred  animals  were  only  the  living  repre- 
sentatives of  the  deities,  but  the  popular  superstition 
made  them  into  real  gods ;  and  the  worship  of  those 
animals  was,  perhaps,  that  part  of  their  religion  to 
which  the  people  were  most  invincibly  attached." 

Of  those  sacred  animals  three  were  more  celebrated 
than  any  others,  which  from  very  early  time  were  con- 
sidered '^  not  merely  as  representatives,  but  as  incarna- 
tions of  the  deity."  These  were  the  bull  Mnevis,  wor- 
shipped at  On,  Heliopolis  ;  the  goat  of  Mendes,  the  in 
carnation  of  the  god  Khem,  or  Min  ;  and  the  bull  Apis, 
the  incarnation  of  Phtah.     A.pis  was  presumed  to  be 


214  COMPARATIVE    RELIGION. 

born  of  a  cow  impregnated  by  llglitning  from  heaven, 
and  had  on  him  some  very  uncommon  marks,  which 
however,  the  priests  contrived  to  find  in  some  calf 
when  an  Apis  w^as  needed  for  the  succession  in  the 
temple.  On  such  an  occasion  the  people  dressed  in 
their  best  attire  and  gave  themselves  up  to  rejoicing. 
The  divine  bull  was  not  suffered  to  live  more  than 
a  limited  number  of  years,  '*  at  the  end  of  that  time, 
if  he  did  not  die  a  natural  death,  he  was  killed  ;  still, 
however,  they  mourned  for  him." 

But  not  only  animals,  certain  vegetables  were 
also  used  as  signs  of  divine  attributes,  and  i*egarded 
with  a  degree  of  superstitious  regard.  There  was 
more  reason  for  such  homage  being  paid  to  their  great 
and  fertilizing  river. 

''Such  then  was  in  reality  the  worship  of  the 
Egyptian  people,  a  strange  and  almost  inextricably 
confused  mixture  of  sublime  truths  with  metaphysical 
or  cosmological  ideas,  often  confused,  always  grand- 
iose, a  refined  morality,  an  abject  form  of  worship, 
and  popular  superstitions,  coarse  to  the  last  degree."* 


YI. 


LEGALISM  IN  BABYLONIA    AND  ASSYRIA. 

To  the  Hindu,  the  misleading  idea  was  that  of  God 
manifesting  himself  in  nature  ;  to  the  Egyptian,  it  was 
the  use  of  natural  objects  as  symbols  of  God,  or  of  his 

*  Lenormant,  vol.  1.  pp.  334-27. 


VI. LEGALISM   IN   BABYLONIA   AND    SYRIA.        215 

attributes ;  so,  to  the  people  of  Syria,  Assyria,  and 
Babylonia,  it  was  the  idea  of  the  Divine  monarch  rul- 
ing in  and  through  the  agency  of  the  heavenly  bodies. 
From  the  original  Ilu,  God  sole  and  unrepresented  by 
form,  the  process  of  innovation  was  through  astronomy. 
Egyptians  were  especially  struck  by  the  daily  and 
yearly  course  of  the  sun  ;  the  Babylonians  and  Assyr- 
ians, by  the  astral  heavens,  and  most  of  all  by  the 
movements  of  the  planets.  And  the  difference  be- 
tween the  Babylonian  and  Assyrian  was  due  chiefly  to 
the  degrees  of  consistency  with  which  that  idea  was 
carried  out. 

In  Chaldea  it  does  not  appear  that  any  temple 
was  ever  dedicated  to  Ilu.  ''The  idea  of  him  was  too 
comprehensive,  too  vast,  to  have  any  determined 
external  form."  "  But  at  Nineveh,  and  generally 
throughout  Assyria,  he  received  the  peculiar  national 
name  of  Asshur,"  apparently  related  to  the  Aryan 
word  Asura,  wdiich  by  a  characteristic  substitution  of 
h  for  s,  became  in  Zend,  Ahura,  the  Avestan  name  for 
God.  The  image,  or  symbol  of  Asshur  was  according- 
ly, in  later  times,  accepted  perhaps  with  good  reason 
by  the  Persians  to  represent  Ahura-mazda.  That 
image  consisted  of  a  circle  or  wheel  pictured  as 
soaring  in  heaven  with  the  wings  and  tail  of  an  eagle. 
The  circle  sometimes  contains  the  bust  of  a  human 
figure,  and  sometimes  is  empt}^ 

"  Below  Ilu,  the  universal  and  mysterious  source 
of  all,  was  placed  a  triad,"  consisting  of  Ann,  the 
Cannes  of  the  Greek  writers  on  this  subject ;  "  Bel, 
the  demiurgus,  the  organizer  of  the  world  ;  Ao,  called 


216  COMPAKATIVE   RELIGION. 

also  Bin — tliat  is,  the  divine  '  son  ' — the  divine  light, 
the  intelligence  penetrating,  directing  and  vivifying  the 
universe."  These  three  divine  personifications,  equal 
in  power,  were  regarded  as  having  issued  successively 
one  from  the  other  ;  Ao  from  Anu,  and  Bel  from  Ao. 
Ann,  ''  the  lord  of  the  lower  world,  the  lord  of  dark- 
ness, was  represented  on  the  monuments  under  the 
strange  figure  of  a  man  with  an  eagle's  tail  and  for  his 
head-dress  a  fish,  whose  open  mouth  rises  over  his  head, 
while  the  body  covers  his  shoulders.  It  is  under  this 
form  that  Berosus  tells  us,  according  to  Babylonian 
traditions,  he  floated  on  the  surface  of  the  waters  of 
Chaos.  Bel,  '  the  father  of  the  gods,'  was  usually  rep- 
resented under  an  entirely  human  form,  attired  as  a 
king,  wearing  a  tiara  with  bulls'  horns,  the  symbol  of 
power.  But  this  god  took  many  other  secondary 
forms,  the  most  important  being  Be]-Dagon,a  human 
bust  springing  from  the  body  of  a  fish.  We  do  not 
know  exactly  the  typical  figure  of  Ao,  or  Bin,  '  the 
intelligent  guide,  the  lord  of  the  visible  world,  the 
lord  of  knowledge,  glory  and  life  ; '  the  serpent  seems 
to  have  been  his  principal  symbol." 

Each  god  of  this  triad  had  a  corresponding  female 
deity,  to  use  the  expression  of  many  of  the  inscriptions, 
*  his  reflection.'  Anat,  the  Anaitis  of  the  Greek  writers, 
accompanied  Anu ;  Bilit,  rendered  by  the  Greeks 
Mylitta,  the  mother  of  the  gods,  belonged  to  Bel ;  and 
Taauth  to  Ao.  The  triad  is  symbolical.  It  is  God, 
the  first  cause  originating  all  things ;  the  intelligent 
designer  and  author  of  life,  to  the  universe,  and  the 
creator  of  all  existing  forms. 


VI. LEGALISM   IN   BABYLONIA   AND   ASSYRIA.     217 

A  secondary  triad  was  constituted  of  the  Sun,  Sha- 
mash,  the  Moon,  Sin,  and  an  inferior  manifestation  of 
Ao,  representing  the  atmosphere,  or  Mrmament.  And 
third  in  the  divine  hierarchy  were  the  gods  of  the  five 
planets,  Saturn,  Jupiter,  Mars,  Yenus  and  Mercury, 
represented  respectively  by  Adar,  Merodach,  Nergal, 
Ishtar,  and  N"ebo.  Throughout  the  list  of  these  inferior, 
though  still  august  personages,  it  is  the  first  triad  of 
attributes  personified  which  energizes  in  various  ways. 
The  planet-god  of  Saturn  seems  a  further  expression  of 
the  nature  of  Ann,  and  Kebo,  of  Ao ;  and  Merodach, 
though  of  primary  importance  at  Babylon,  and  called 
"  the  ancient  one  of  the  gods,  the  supreme  judge,  the 
master  of  the  horoscope,''  was  but  an  agency  of  Bel. 
Ishtar  corresj^onded  to  the  female  members  of  the 
triad,  Anat  and  Bilit.  For  Ishtar  was  twofold,  ^'  that 
worshipped  at  Arbela,  and  that  at  Xineveh.''  '^  The 
plural  name  of  the  double  Ishtar,  Ishtaroth,  was  the  or- 
igin of  the  Phenician  Ashtaroth.''  JSTergal  was  the  god 
of  war,  the  "  master  of  battles,''  and  "  god  of  the  chase." 

In  Babylonia,  the  Chaldeans,  from  their  study  of 
astronomy,  were  early  led  to  the  belief  that  the  stars 
exercised  a  divine  agency  over  the  birth  and  life  of  men, 
and  determined  the  destiny  of  nations.  It  was  believed 
that  they,  especially  the  planets,  were  interpreters  of 
the  almighty  decrees,  to  those  who  observed  and  under- 
stood the  meaning  of  their  movements.  Accordingly 
the  mythology  of  Babylon  was  more  strictly  astronom- 
ical, or  astrological  than  that  of  Kineveh.  To  the  two 
triads,  and  the  deities  of  the  five  planets,  the  Babylon- 
ians added  '*  twelve  councillors  of  the  gods,  each  of 

lO 


218  COMPARATIVK   KELIGIO^^. 

whom  presided  over  one  month  of  the  year,  and  over 
one  of  the  signs  of  the  zodiac."  And  to  these  chief 
deities  were  also  attached  other  powers,  distributed  in 
both  a  scientific  and  rehgious  order,  forming  essential 
elements  in  Chaldean  worship.  The  system  inevitably 
grew  under  the  scientific  hands  which  framed  it,  into 
a  sidereal  pantheism,  in  which  the  stars  were  the  agen- 
cies of  the  one  all-pervading  deity.  Its  influence  ex- 
tended to  Syria  and  other  neighboring  nations,  entering 
into  union  with  the  native  faith.  It  reached  the  kingdom 
of  Judah.  Amons:  the  reforms  of  kino^  Josiah  was  that 
of  putting  a  stop  to  the  burning  of  incense  to  the  sun 
and  moon,  and  to  the  planets,  and  to  all  the  host  of 
heaven.  And  he  took  away  the  horses  that  the  kings  of 
Judah  had  given  to  the  sun,  at  the  entering  in  of  the 
house  of  the  Lord.  He  also  burned  the  chariots  of  the 
sun  with  fire.^ 

Such  were  the  great  gods,  according  to  the  belief 
of  those  who  could  give  an  account  of  their  faith. 
But  popular  superstition  conceived  of  them  more 
grossly,  and  added  largely  to  their  number.  And  the 
primary  elements  of  worship,  few  and  the  same  every- 
where, were  overlaid  with  a  multitude  of  accessories, 
some  of  them  absurd  and  immoral.  Even  one  or  two 
of  the  great  gods  of  the  stellar  system  were  worship- 
ped with  rites  which  were  scandalous.  J^ot  the  less 
were  they,  as  observances  of  religion,  prescribed  by 
inflexible  law. 

One  feature  of  the  national  worship  was  the  "  lo- 
calization of  the  service  of  each  divine  personage  in 
*  2  Kings,  xxiii.  5, 11. 


VII. PHENICIAN    AND    SYRIAN    LEGALISM.        219 

some  particular  cit-y,  where  he  was  regarded  as  the 
first  and  greatest  of  the  gods,  w^iatever  might  be  the 
place  he  filled  elsewhere"  in  the  Babylonian  panthe- 
on.* In  form  this  was  like  the  Egyptian  system,  had 
a  resemblance  to  some  efiects  of  the  Hindu,  and  in 
spirit  was  identical  with  polytheistic  pantheism  ev^ery- 
wliere;  but  the  method  of  operation  was  different. 
In  Egypt,  polytheism  was  primarily  constituted  by  the 
union  of  several  monotheisms ;  in  Babylonia,  the 
local  gods  were  all  the  offspring  of  a  dividing  mon- 
otheism which  was  originally  spiritual ;  while  in 
India,  localization  of  deities,  where  it  did  exist,  pro- 
ceeded out  of  a  system  of  pure  nature-worship,  and 
was  due  to  the  variety  of  forms  in  which  God  con- 
ceived of  in  that  way,  appears,  whereby  every  locality 
might  have  its  special  reasons  for  worshipping  the 
all-god  in  a  character  proper  to  itself. 


YII. 

PHENICIAN    AND    SYRIAN   LEGALISM. 

El,  the  originally  sole  god  of  the  Syrians  and  Sidoni- 
ans,  identical  with  the  Ilu  of  the  Assyrians,  also,  in  the 
progress  of  innovation,  receded  into  the  distance,  as 
too  solemn  and  exalted  to  be  approached  by  man. 
The  less  awful  name  substituted  by  superstitious  rev- 
erence, was  Baal,  the  master,  or  lord.  Sometimes  Jaoh 
was  used ;  but  that  was  hardly  less  solemn  than  El. 
The  lord  was  a  reverent  name,  not  too  awful  for  human 
lips  to  pronounce. 

*  Lenormant,  vol.  1.  452-456. 


220  COMPARATIVE    RELIGION. 

The  relations  in  which  God  stood  to  his  creation 
■were  felt  to  be  manifold,  and  the  evidencing  of  his 
power,  different  in  different  creatures  and  different 
places.  The  sun  was  the  chief  power  in  the  universe, 
the  blessing  and  glorj  of  God  to  all  the  nations  ;  but 
different  nations  and  cities  were  indebted  to  him  for 
many  special  gifts.  So  Baal  is  represented  to  all  the 
states  of  Syria  and  Phenicia  by  the  sun,  at  the  same 
time  that  he  is  worshipped  under  different  names,  and 
with  somewhat  different  rites  in  the  several  states. 
Eaalim,  that  is,  Baals,  became  as  numerous  as  the  cit- 
ies in  which  that  god  was  worshipped.  By  the  time 
that  the  Israelites  returned  from  Egypt,  this  stage  of 
the  Baal  mythology  was  fully  constituted.  Thus  we 
read  of  Baal-Zephon,  a  place  named  from  some  relation 
to  Baal,  Baal-Peor,  that  is  Baal  as  worshipped  at  Peor, 
Baal-Meon,  Baal-Tamar,  Baal-Hermon,  and  Baal-Gad, 
all  mentioned  in  the  early  history  of  the  Israelitish  na- 
tion, and  attached  to  places  scattered  from  the  frontiers 
of  Egypt,  to  the  heart  of  Lebanon,  vouching  for  the 
already  wide  diffusion  of  Baal-worship  among  the  na- 
tions of  Canaan  and  Syria.  It  continued  to  Increase 
daring  the  time  of  the  Hebrew  judges  ;  and  maintained 
itself  with  unabated  power  through  the  best  part  of 
the  monarchy. 

The  growth  of  polytheism  in  Syria  and  Phenicia 
was  largely  due  to  local  and  political  causes.  Baal 
worshipped  in  Tyre  became  the  Tyrian  Baal,  and  fur- 
ther appropriated  by  Tyrians  as  "  king  of  the  city,"  in 
their  own  language  Melek  Kiryath,  was,  in  the  course 
of  time  constituted    a  separate   deity   as   Melkarth. 


VII. PHENICIAN   AND    SYRIAN    LEGALISM.         221 

Thus  Baalim  were  multiplied  over  the  land  without 
system,  and  by  accidental  circumstances ;  and  yet  as 
constituted  in  any  one  city  that  religion  became  impli- 
cated with  the  state,  enforced  by  authority  of  govern- 
ment, and  determined  in  its  observances  by  the  regula- 
tions of  law. 

At  the  same  time,  the  local  variations  of  Baal 
were  variously  combined  with  those  which  grew  out 
of  the  belief  that  he  manifested  himself,  or  at  least  his 
will,  in  the  objects  and  operations  of  nature.  In  that 
light  he  was  conceived  of  as  fourfold,  in  creating, 
destroying,  reviving,  and  in  that  process  of  decompo- 
sition whereby  the  decaying  materials  of  life  are  re- 
combined  into  new  forms  of  vitality.  Thus  was 
another  inferior  class  of  gods  formed,  as  Baal-Tham- 
muz,  otherwise,  Adon,  the  lord  of  productive 
nature,  Baal-Chon,  the  preserver,  Baal-Moloch,  the 
destroyer,  and  Baal-Zebub. 

There  were  also  astronomical  Baalim.  Under  the 
solar  god,  Baal-Samim,  ''lord  of  the  heavens,"  were 
the  seven  planet  gods,  worshipped  under  the  generic 
name  of  Cabirim,  "  the  powerful  ones,"  to  whom  were 
added  Esmun,  the  invisible  and  highest  minister  of 
the  primordial  Baal.  "He  personified  the  whole 
sidereal  system,  and  was  supposed  to  preside  over  the 
laws  and  harmony  of  the  universe." 

A  fourth  class  proceeded  from  the  same  common 
source  in  accordance  with  a  "  more  general  physical 
conception.  The  element  of  fire  was  considered,  in 
its  most  extended  acceptation,  as  the  principle  of  life, 
the   source  of  all  activity,  of  all  renewal,  and  of  all 


222  COMPARATIVE   KELIGIOX. 

destruction.  'The  solar  or  sidereal  gods  are  essen- 
tiall}'  fire-gods.  This  clearly  appears  in  Baal-Moloch, 
and  his  worship,  in  which  lire  plajed  so  great  a  part." 
To  the  same  order  "belonged  Baal-Hamon,  burning 
Baal;  the  national  god  of  Carthage,"  Resheph,  'the 
thunderbolt,'  the  celestial  tire,"  and  Adar,  the  fire- 
god  adopted  from  Ass3'ria. 

With  the  personages  of  these  different  classes  were 
connected  corresponding  female  deities.  To  each 
Baal,  a  Baalath  who  represented  the  same  attributes 
under  another  aspect. 

By  these  various  processes,  out  of  the  belief  in  one 
almighty  Being,  the  polytheism  of  Syria  ramified 
indefinitely. 

Worship,  in  a  corresponding  w^ay,  multiplied  and 
diversified  its  observances.  In  many  places  it  became 
notoriously  immoral,  both  in  voluptuousness  and 
cruelty.  Children  were  barned  alive  in  sacrifice  to 
the  fire-god  Baal-Moloch.  In  the  ceremonies  of  Tham- 
muz,  great  mourning  was  followed  by  monstrous 
orgies,  and  others  rivalled  the  debauchery  which  be- 
longed to  rites  of  Mylitta  at  Babylon.  "  The  Canaan- 
ites  were  remarkable  for  the  atrocious  cruelty  that 
stamped  all  the  ceremonies  of  their  worship,  and  the 
precepts  of  their  religion.  No  other  people  ever 
rivalled  them  in  the  mixture  of  bloodshed  and  de- 
bauchery, with  which  they  thought  to  honor  the 
deity."* 

This  religion  was  early  carried  abroad  along  the 
shores  of  the  Mediterranean,  by  the  merchant  ships  and 
*  Lenormant,  vol.  11.  219--224. 


vn. — PHENICIAN   AND    SYRIAN   LEGALISM.       223 

colonies  of  Tyre  and  Sidon  :  and  in  Cyprus  and  Crete 
and  on  the  coasts  of  Asia  Minor,  in  several  islands  of 
the  ^gean,  and  elsewhere,  some  of  its  characteristic 
features  long  remained.  In  the  Tyrian  colonies  on 
the  coast  of  northern  Africa,  and  of  Spain,  it  was  estab- 
lished in  full.  Where  it  came  in  contact  with  the 
Greek  populations,  its  more  offensive  elements  were 
mollified,  or  abolished,  by  the  finer  taste  and  feeling  of 
that  eminently  humane  people. 

Among  the  Hebrews,  symbolic  images  of  God  were 
often  used,  and  by  many  of  the  people  ;  but  they  were 
chiefly  borrowed  from  their  neighbors  ;  as  the  golden 
calf,  at  Sinai,  the  calves  set  up  by  Jereboam  at  Bethel 
and  Dan,  and  the  Terephim  of  Micah,  mentioned  in 
the  book  of  Judges,  all  copied  from  the  national  reli- 
gion of  Egypt ;  and  the  groves,  images  and  high  places 
of  Syrian  worship.  The  Israelites  were  constantly 
subject  to  be  approached  by  the  aggressive  and  persist- 
ing proselytism  of  the  servants  of  Baal,  who,  of  one 
sect  or  another,  ^vere  all  around  them.  The  common- 
est error  was  to  worship  Jehovah  with  an  imitation  of 
a  foreign  ritual.  But  from  that  heretical  way  of  wor- 
shipping the  true  God  by  the  methods  of  a  foreign  re- 
ligion, the  transition  was  easy  to  the  adoption  of  the 
foreign  religion  itself.  But  the  orthodox  idea  of  Jeho- 
vah was  never  degraded.  He  was  a  God  never  put  by 
the  sacred  books  of  the  nation  in  the  light  of  a  mere 
abstraction ;  never  removed  to  an  impracticable  dis- 
tance, to  give  place  to  subordinate  gods ;  never  brought 
down  to  an  irreverent  familiarity.  Such  as  he  was 
presented   to    Abraham    and    to    Moses,    he    is   also 


224:  COMPARATIVE    RELIGION. 

declared  to  David  and  the  later  prophets.  The  people 
did  use,  out  of  reverence,  a  less  solemn  name  for  that 
of  Jehovah  ;  but  it  was  never  taken  to  mean  another 
god. 

There  is  progressive  fullness  in  the  presentation  of 
Jehovah's  attributes,  but  no  alteration  of  his  nature, 
no  dividing  of  it  into  various  gods,  no  degrading  of  it 
to  the  level  of  human  weaknesses  or  vices,  no  evapo- 
rating of  it  into  philosophical  abstraction.  It  is  never 
exalted  to  the  almighty  nonentity  of  Brahm,  or  of  Ra, 
to  the  mere  formal  existence  of  Shangti,  or  reduced  to 
the  mixed  human  imperfection  of  Jupiter.  In  the 
latest  Hebrew  Scriptures  as  in  the  earliest,  the  character 
of  Jehovah  is  the  same  personal,  spiritual,  holy,  just, 
almighty  and  merciful  God.  If  corruption  attaches  to 
his  worship  and  the  thoughts  of  men  about  him,  it  in- 
variably comes  from  abroad  ;  never  in  the  development 
of  the  sacred  literature.  JS'or  does  that  sacred  litera- 
ture in  any  respect,  at  any  time,  justify  the  changes 
which  some  of  the  people  favor.  It  never  bends  to  take 
up  and  embody  a  prevailing  popular  practice.  The 
Hebrew  people  became  as  a  whole  idolatrous  and  im- 
moral, most  of  them  quite  as  much  so  as  their  neigh- 
bors ;  the  moral  and  religious  character  of  their  sacred 
scriptures  continues  to  be  of  the  same  elevated  standard 
from  beginning  to  end. 

To  some  extent  this  may  be  explained  by  the  fact 
that  error  was  generally  brought  in  from  abroad  and 
was  naturally  opposed  by  the  native  priesthood.  But 
on  the  other  hand,  it  was  not  the  priesthood  but  the 
prophets  who  formed  the  firmest  barrier  to  error,  nor 


VII. PHENICIAN    AND    SYRIAN    LEGALISM.  225 

does  it  appear  that  the  priests  had  much  to  do  with  the 
production  of  holy  scripture. 

In  all  other  known  cases,  the  later  scriptures,  in 
their  progressive  production,  keep  pace  with  the  pop- 
ular changes,  take  up  the  notions  and  practices  which 
have  grown  into  popular  authority,  and  work  them 
into  a  system  sacerdotal,  legal,  or  philosophical, — in 
the  latter  case,  harmonizing  them,  as  well  as  may  be, 
with  the  earlier  scriptures,  which  they  frequently  con- 
tradict. 

The  Hebrew  people  turned  aside  from  their  national 
religion  into  all  sorts  of  foreign  errors  to  which  they 
were  exposed.  But  the  Hebrew  religion  in  itself  re- 
mained unchanged,  and  the  new  sacred  books  were 
successively  written  in  the  same  spirit  as  the  ancient, 
and  never  stooped  to  take  up  the  heretical  notions  pre- 
vailing among  the  people. 

Hindu  scriptures  of  the  legal  period  followed,  if 
they  did  not  to  some  extent  lead  in  the  path  of  depart- 
ure from  the  earlier  standards.  Avestanism  faithfully 
retained  its  monotheistic  creed ;  but  its  later  script- 
ures were  entirely  ritual  and  ceremonial,  and  the 
sacerdotalism  of  the  Magi  made  large  aggressions  upon 
the  simplicity  of  its  priesthood  and  worship. 

On  all  sides,  legalism  had  developed,  with  a  strik- 
ing uniformity,  into  a  burdensome  system  of  hollow 
observances,  idolatrous  of  images  or  of  forms,  or  of 
both ;  and  practically  exclusive  of  a  spiritual  God, 
personally  present  and  powerful  to  save;  and  into  a 
priestly  despotism  all  pervading  and  oppressive. 


lO' 


CHAPTEK  XI. 

THE   GREAT   REVOLUTION   OF   REASON. 

Such  was  the  state  of  progress,  fully  reached,  and 
already  for  a  long  time  felt  to  be  a  bondage  intolerably 
oppressive  upon  the  nations,  when,  about  six  hundred 
years  before  Christ,  a  great  movement  of  reform  arose 
simultaneously  in  all  the  principal  seats  of  civilization. 

In  this  instance,  there  was  put  forth  no  claim  of 
inspired  authority  for  the  foundation  of  a  new  faith. 
A  general  uprising  of  human  reason,  as  opposed  to  an 
idolatrous  priestcraft  and  stupid  abuses  under  the 
name  of  law,  it  attempted  to  supply  their  place  witli  a 
reasonable  religion,  or  with  sound  moral  or  legal  cul- 
ture. It  was  the  epoch  of  Confucius,  in  China,  of 
Buddha,  in  India,  of  Darius  Hystaspes,  the  great  re- 
forming monarch  of  Persia,  of  Zerubabel  and  Ezra, 
and  the  final  abandonment  of  idolatry  by  the  Jews,  of 
the  rightly  called  sages  in  Greece,  of  Servius  Tullius  in 
Rome,  and  of  the  establishment  of  the  monotheistic 
Persians  in  dominion  over  Western  Asia  and  Egypt. 


I. 

CONFUCIUS; 


The  most  moderate  of  reformers  was  Confucius,  and 
yet  none  have  been  by  succeeding  generations  more  ex- 


THE  GEEAT  REVOLUTION  OF  REASON.      227 

travagantlj  lionored.  In  liis  time  the  teaching  and  re 
corded  example  of  the  sages  of  Chinese  antiquity  were 
falling  into  neglect.  The  books,  in  which  their  honored 
labors  were  recorded,  already  had  suffered  loss.  Confu- 
cius saw  the  prevailing  and  increasing  degeneracy,  and 
the  danger  that  the  sacred  books  would  soon  perish  en- 
tirely, and  that  the  national  religion  and  practical  mor- 
als would  fall  into  irremediable  corruption.  Without 
pretending  to  any  superior  gifts,  or  to  any  instructions 
of  a  supernatural  kind,  while  3^et  in  early  manhood 
he  began  to  devote  his  attention  to  collecting  all  that 
remained  of  the  ancient  scriptures,  and  to  editing 
them  with  care  and  urging  the  attention  of  others  to 
the  study  of  them,  and  to  follow  the  precepts  and  ex- 
amples which  they  contained.  He  was  a  statesman, 
and  aimed  especially  at  the  establishment  of  good  gov- 
ernment. Religion  he  viewed  chiefly  in  its  relations 
to  morals,  and  the  peaceful  order  of  the  empire. 
While  holding  high  public  oflfices,  he  had  a  number  of 
disciples,  who  diligently  waited  upon  him  at  all  times 
when  he  was  free  to  see  them,  for  the  profit  to  be  de- 
rived from  his  conversation.  It  was  to  him  a  matter 
of  regret  that  none  of  the  princes  were  to  be  found  in 
that  number.  His  estimate  of  himself  was  sober,  even 
humble.  He  had  no  communications  from  God ;  he 
was  only  a  man  of  respectable  learning,  anxious  to  re- 
vive the  religion  and  virtues  of  the  earlier  times,  and 
the  stndy  of  the  sacred  books,  and  doing  the  best  he 
could  by  example  to  enforce  his  teaching.  All  that  he 
can  be  justly  said  to  have  taught,  as  of  his  own  judg- 
ment, was  good,  sound  rational  morality.     Yet  his  fol- 


228  COMPAKATIYE    EELIGION. 

lowers  soon  began  to  speak  of  him  in  the  most  extrava- 
gant way,  as  more  than  mortal,  and  before  many  gen- 
erations had  elapsed,  he  was  exalted  to  be  an  object  of 
worship.  Fortunately  for  his  reputation,  his  writings 
remain,  as  well  as  the  greater  part  of  the  sacred  books 
on  which  he  expended  his  editorial  care ;  whether  for- 
tunately for  China,  in  the  long  run,  may  be  doubted. 
For  the  influence  of  his  rationalistic  style  of  thinking 
is  to  this  day  controlling  among  the  learned  classes, 
and  is  the  greatest  obstacle  encountered  by  Christian 
missionaries  in  that  land. 

Confucius  was  born  in  the  year  five  hundred  and 
fifty-one  before  Christ,  and  died  in  four  hundred  and 
eighty-eight.  He  was  followed  by  a  numerous  list  of 
disciples,  who  carried  his  doctrines,  and  the  reverence 
of  his  name,  to  the  utmost  bounds  of  China.  They 
have  asserted  their  dominion  over  the  minds  of  a  vast 
multitude  of  men,  perhaps  more  than  ever  submitted 
in  equal  degree  to  the  teaching  of  any  other  moral 
philosopher ;  but  the  remarks  which  have  been  recent- 
ly made  about  him  as  superior  to  Socrates  are  too  hasty. 
He  was  a  wise  man  among  his  people,  a  sober-minded, 
Benjamin-Franklin-kind  of  a  man,  in  a  vastly  populous 
branch  of  mankind  where  that  kind  of  merit  is  highly 
appreciated  ;  but  Confucius  was  no  Socrates.  That 
intuition  into  the  nature  of  human  thinking,  that  pow- 
er of  discerning  and  expounding  causes,  of  discriminat- 
ing, and  constructing  arguments  whereby  to  ascend  to 
causes,  which  have  constituted  Socrates  the  father  of  all 
true  science,  are  far  above  the  level  of  Confucius. 
Fewer   minds    come    into    immediate    contact    with 


THE  GREAT  REVOLUTION  OF  REASON.      229 

Socrates,  but  they  are  the  minds  which  govern,  and 
must  govern,  the  world  ;  and  the  more  that  they  come 
into  collision  with  the  followers  of  Confucius,  the 
more  will  their  superiority  appear. 


II. 

BUDDHISM. 

Six  hundred  years  before  Christ  the  religion  of 
Brahmanism  had  matured  into  an  absolute  domination 
over  India.  The  simple  patriarchal  worship  of  the 
early  Yedic  hymns,  already  corrupted  within  the 
Yedic  period,  had  become  a  sacerdotal  system,  con- 
structed and  managed  by  a  sacerdotal  caste.  Founded 
in  the  most  solemn  convictions  of  the  people,  it  had 
extended  its  ramifications  of  despotism  over  the  whole 
country,  and  from  the  highest  to  the  lowest  grades  of 
society.  It  held  every  individual,  from  birth  to  the 
grave,  in  bonds  which  he  could  not  escape  for  a  mo- 
ment, and  which  were  the  more  awfully  oppressive, 
since  they  were  riveted  in  the  soul.  It  was  then  that 
an  intellectual  champion  appeared,  who  undertook 
to  rescue  India  from  the  bondage  of  her  creed,  and 
from  the  natural  ills  which  her  creed  had  aggravated. 

Qouddhodana  was  king  in  Kapilavastu,  capital  of 
the  country  of  the  same  name,  in  central  India,  at 
the  foot  of  the  mountains  of  ]N"epal.  He  was  of  the 
family  of  Sakya,  a  branch  of  the  powerful  tribe  of 
Gotama,  and  of  the  Kshatrya,  or  warrior  caste.  His 
queen,  Maya  Devi,  was   daughter   of  a   neighboring 


230  COMPARATIVE   EELIGIOX. 

monarch,  and  equally  distinguished  by  her  beauty, 
intelligence,  and  piety.  Such  were  the  father  and 
mother  of  the  liberator.  Kesistance  to  Brahmanieal 
oppression  did  not  spring  from  the  ranks  of  the  op- 
pressed, but  from  the  tender  and  generous  heart  of 
one  who  came  down  from  the  loftiest  rank  of  society 
to  deliver  them. 

Siddhartha,  the  first  son  of  Qouddhodana  and 
Maya  Devi,  and  heir  apparent  of  the  throne,  was  born 
towards  the  end  of  the  seventh  or  beginning  of  the 
sixth  century  before  Christ.  From  childhood  he 
evinced  a  meditative  disposition.  The  plays  of  other 
children  had  no  attraction  for  him,  while  he  excelled 
in  every  branch  of  learning,  as  presented  to  his  years. 
Prolonged  solitary  meditations  were  not  deemed  suit- 
able to  the  education  of  a  king,  and  various  methods 
were  devised  to  interest  him  in  the  business  and 
amusements  proper  to  his  rank,  and  the  office  to 
■which  his  birth  assigned  him.  Mildly,  but  firmly,  he 
persisted  in  his  way.  The  sight  of  poverty,  sickness, 
old  age  and  death,  filled  him  with  sadness  for  the  suf- 
ferings of  mankind.  Was  there  any  way  of  salvation 
to  be  found  ?  Brahmanism,  as  far  as  he  could  see, 
furnished  none,  but,  on  the  contrary,  aggravated  all 
the  ills  of  human  life,  and  gratuitously  increased  their 
number.  Resolved  to  probe  the  canker  to  its  depths, 
h.3  made  several  attempts  to  seclude  himself  for  medi- 
tation on  this  momentous  subject.  Finally,  at  the  age 
of  twenty-nine  years,  he  stole  away  from  his  father's 
court,  by  night,  leaving  behind  his  young  and  much 
beloved  wife,  and  all  the  pleasures  designed  to  occupy 


THE  GREAT  REVOLUTION  OF  REASON.      231 

his  affections,  and  eluding  the  guards  appointed  to 
detain  him,  he  succeeded  in  getting  beyond  the  bounds 
of  his  father's  dominions  before  pursuit  could  overtake 
him.  Divesting  himself  of  every  badge  of  rank,  he 
assumed  the  garb  of  an  ascetic,  and  entered  one  of  the 
highest  of  the  great  Brahmanical  schools. 

Among  the  more  than  three  hundred  pupils  of  the 
illustrious  Arata  Kalama  of  Yaigali,  Siddhartha  soon 
took  his  place  as  the  first,  and  was  solicited  by  his  mas- 
ter to  take  part  with  him  in  teaching.  But  he  replied, 
"  The  doctrine  of  Arata  is  not  truly  liberating ;  to 
practice  it  is  not  a  true  liberation,  nor  a  complete 
draining  out  of  misery.''  Then  added  in  his  own 
heart,  "  By  carrying  to  perfection  that  doctrine  which 
consists  in  poverty  and  restraint  of  the  senses,  I  shall 
arrive  at  true  deliverance;  but  for  that,  I  need  yet  to 
tnake  more  profound  researches." 

In  Kajagriha,  ■  the  capital  of  Magadha,  lived  the 
Brahmanical  doctor,  Roudraka,  the  son  of  Rama,  more 
celebrated  still  than  Arata  Kalama.  To  him  did  Sidd- 
hartha modestly  present  himself  with  the  petition  to 
be  enrolled  as  one  of  his  disciples.  Roudraka  soon 
accepted  him  as  an  equal.  ''  You  and  I,"  said  he, 
"  will  teach  our  doctrine  to  this  multitude."  The 
number  of  scholars  was  about  seven  hundred.  But, 
as  at  Yai^ali,  so  here  the  earnest  inquirer  soon  became 
dissatisfied  with  the  sum  of  all  the  master  had  to  teach. 
*'  My  friend,"  said  he,  "  this  way  leads  not  to  indifier- 
ence  to  the  things  of  the  world,  leads  not  to  emanci- 
pation from  passion,  leads  not  to  arrest  of  the  changes 
of  existence,  leads  not  to  tranquillity,  leads  not  to  com- 


232  COMPAEATIVE    KELIGION. 

plete  intelligence,  leads  not  to  the  state  of  Qi^amana, 
leads  not  to  Nirvana."  And  then,  in  the  presence  of 
all  the  disciples  of  Eoudraka,  he  withdrew.  Five  of 
them  followed  him.  Thus  accompanied,  he  betook 
himself  to  entire  seclusion,  first  on  Mount  Gaya,  and 
then  to  the  village  of  Ouruvilva,  on  the  banks  of  the 
Kairanjana,  where  he  devoted  six  years  to  study  and 
ascetic  exercises,  before  obtaining  any  satisfactory 
light  on  the  great  question  of  his  life. 

Before  the  end  of  that  time  he  became  convinced 
that  extreme  asceticism  was  not  the  way  to  perfect 
intelligence,  and  began  to  relax  his  severity,  yet  with- 
out indulging  to  greater  length  in  food  or  drink  than 
was  necessary  to  efficiency  in  study.  His  five  disci- 
ples disapproved  of  the  change,  deserted  him  and  went 
to  Benares.  Left  alone,  Siddhartha  continued  his  medi- 
tations with  the  more  effect,  that  he  had  relaxed  hi% 
austerities.  Then  it  was  that  he  completely  wrought 
out  the  principles  of  his  system,  and  the  rules  of  disci- 
pline which  he  designed  to  propose  to  his  adherents. 

In  commencing  his  ascetic  life  he  had  exchanged 
his  royal  attire  for  the  garb  of  a  hunter.  That  had 
now,  in  the  end  of  six  years'  wear,  fallen  to  pieces. 
He  resulted  himself  by  opening  a  recently  made  grave, 
and  plundering  the  body  of  its  shroud,  which  he  cut, 
sewed  and  fitted  to  himself  with  his  own  hands.  Sub- 
sequently he  made  it  a  law  for  his  monastic  followers, 
that  their  clothing  should  consist  of  rags  gathered 
by  themselves  from  the  streets  and  the  cemeteries. 

Siddhartha  had  now  learned  all  that  the  Brahman- 
ical  schools  had  to  teach ;  he  had  thoroughly  mastered 


THE   GREAT   REVOLUTION   OF   REASON.  233 

it,  and  gone  beyond  it.  He  knew  his  future  adver- 
saries, and  knew  himself,  where  they  were  weak,  and 
where  his  position  was  strong.  But  his  aim  being 
not  distinction  nor  superiority,  but  the  salvation  of 
men,  he  still  examined  himself  as  to  whether  he  had 
obtained  a  definitive  and  unalterable  view  of  the  truth 
which  he  was  to  communicate  to  the  world.  "  By  all 
that  I  have  acquired,"  said  he  to  himself,  "  I  have 
greatly  transcended  the  law  of  man,  but  have  not  yet 
reached  to  a  clear  discrimination  of  the  venerable  wis- 
dom. This  is  not  yet  the  way  of  understanding. 
This  way  is  not  able  to  abolish  forever  the  evils  of 
old  age,  of  sickness  or  of  death.''  After  all  the  dreams 
and  noble  aspirations  of  his  boyhood,  and  all  the  stud- 
ies and  austerities  of  his  manhood  so  far,  was  he  ever 
to  be  the  savior  of  mankind  ?  He  was  reaching  the 
crisis  of  his  life,  and  it  was  one  of  intense  anxiety.  In 
one  of  his  frequently  recurring  ecstasies,  and  after  a 
meditation  which  appeared  to  have  lasted  almost  with- 
out interruption  for  a  week,  he  believed  that  at  last 
he  had  obtained  the  desired  power ;  and  in  all  sin- 
cerity answered  his  own  question  affirmatively. 

"  Yes,''  said  he,  "  I  have  at  last  discovered  the  firm 
way  of  the  great  man  ;  the  way  of  the  sacrifice  of  the 
senses ;  the  way  without  error  and  without  dejection  ; 
the  way  of  blessing  and  of  virtue ;  the  way  without 
stain,  without  envy,  without  ignorance  and  without 
passion ;  the  way  which  leads  to  the  high  road  of  sal- 
vation, and  which  causes  the  force  of  the  demon  to 
be  no  force :  the  wav  which  renders  the  reerions  of 
transmigration  no  regions ;  the  way  which  excels  Qakra, 


234  COMPARATIVE   EELIGION. 

Brahma,  Mahe§vara  and  the  guardians  of  the  world ; 
the  way  which  leads  to  the  possession  of  universal 
knowledge;  the  way  of  memory  and  of  judgment ;  a 
way  which  removes  the  bitterness  from  old  age  and 
death ;  a  way  tranquil  and  without  trouble,  exempt 
from  fears  of  the  demon,  and  which  conducts  to  the 
city  of  ISTirvana."  In  that  moment  he  felt  assured  that 
he  had  at  last  become  Buddha,  the  enlightened,  the 
sage  in  all  his  purity,  his  greatness  and  power  more 
than  human,  more  than  divine,  master  of  himself,  the 
savior  of  the  universe,  or  of  all  in  the  universe  who 
can  be  saved. 

Bodhimanda,  the  place  of  intelligence,  where  the 
liberator  obtained  that  first  vision  of  supreme  truth,  is 
one  the  of  holiest  places  to  the  Buddhist  pilgrim.  In  the 
last  days  of  his  protracted,  and  latterly  almost  despair- 
ing meditations,  he  made  himself  a  mat  of  grass,  and 
taking  his  seat  upon  it  in  a  secluded  place,  under  the 
shadow  of  a  tree,  he  finally  determined  to  wait  the  ad- 
vent of  that  supreme  intelligence,  of  which  he  had 
long  dimly  conceived  the  possibility,  and  if  disappoint- 
ed, to  perish  in  waiting.  "  Here,"  said  he,  as  he  took 
his  seat,  ''  let  my  body  wither,  let  my  skin,  my  flesh 
and  my  bones  decay,  if  before  having  attained  to  the 
supreme  intelligence,  I  rise  from  the  sod  on  which  I 
sit." 

There  he  remained  immovable  all  day  and  all  night, 
waiting  to  find  it.  It  was  in  the  last  watch,  and  just 
as  the  dawn  arose,  that  he  felt  himself  endowed  with 
the  long  desired  intelligence,  vested  with  the  quality 
of  Buddha,  elevated   to  a  perfect  knowledge    of  the 


THE  GEEAT  EEYOLUTION  OF  REASON.      235 

three-fold  science.  **  Yes,"  he  exclaimed,  "  thus  will 
I  put  an  end  to  the  suiFerings  of  the  world."  And 
striking  the  earth  with  his  hand,  he  added,  "  Let  this 
earth  be  my  witness  :  she  is  the  abode  of  all  creatures ; 
she  comprehends  all  that  is  movable  and  immovable ; 
she  is  impartial ;  she  will  witness  that  I  lie  not." 

From  that  moment  he  never  hesitated  as  to  the 
doctrine  to  be  preached,  the  method  of  salvation  for 
himself  and  his  fellow-  men.  It  was  one,  and  could  only 
be  one.  But  still  he  doubted  how  it  would  be  accepted. 
He  had  the  divine  light.  Would  men  open  their  eyes 
to  admit  it  ?  "Would  they  be  willing  to  enter  the  way 
in  which  they  should  walk  ?  To  settle  his  mind  on 
this  subject,  and  determine  upon  a  method  of  teaching 
to  be  carried  out  consistently  and  without  variation, 
he  clung  to  his  solitary  meditation  some  time  longer, 
meditating  thus  in  his  heart :  "  The  law  which  proceeds 
from  me  is  profound,  luminous,  subtle,  difficult  to  com- 
prehend ;  it  eludes  criticism  ;  it  is  beyond  the  range  of 
reasoning,  accessible  only  to  the  learned  and  the  wise ; 
it  is  in  opposition  to  all  the  w^orld.  Having  abandoned 
all  conception  of  individuality,  extinguished  every 
idea,  interrupted  all  existence  by  the  way  of  tranquillity, 
it  is  invisible  in  its  character  of  vacuum  ;  having  dried 
up  desire,  exempted  from  passion,  stopping  all  pro- 
duction of  new  existences,  it  conducts  to  Nirvana. 
But  if  become  Buddha  truly  complete,  I  teach  that 
law,  other  men  will  not  understand  it,  it  may  expose 
me  to  their  insults.  I  will  not  abandon  myself  to  my 
own  compassion." 

Three  times  was  Buddha  on  the  point  of  succumb- 


2M0  COMI'AkA'JIVK    KK/JfJlON. 

inij^  to  tli.'il,  wcakncHH,  and  |i(}rlia])K  would  li.'ivo  rc- 
rioiirif;(!(|  I'nntvcr  hin  j^roul  ()Mt(3rj>riH(;,  Hiitihliod  with 
liHviii;^  found  for  liiiiiHtjlf  the  HVA-riit  of  otcrnnl  nalva- 
lion  ;  l)iit  ;i  liii;il  rcflcc^tiori  d(;(;id(;d  lilin,  ;ind  I'oi-lj.'idu 
tl)(!  return  of  his  irroHoliitioii. 

"All  l)cint^K,"  Huid  lu;,  "  vvli(!tli(ir  low,  iriod(;nitc, 
or  (jxahcd,  wlM'.tli<',r  vary  ^ood,  irriporicjfjt,  (jr  vt;ry  bad, 
iriay  l)o  arranged  in  tlinjo  (daHHCJH.  One  chiKK  in  in  tlio 
falw!,  and  will  remain  thorcj;  a  H(;oond  is  in  tin;  true, 
and  ;i  tliiivl  i,s  ir«  nnf;(;rtainty  ;  an  a  man  on  tlio  hanks 
ofn,  j>ond  hi'A'M  lotnH(;.s  whicjh  an?  honcath  the  water, 
others  whieli  are  junt  at  tli(;  HurlacHi,  and  oth(;rs  which 
have  riwjn  above  it.  VVlietlujr  I  teach  the  law  or  not, 
thoKC  who  are  in  the;  faiwi  will  nev(;r  iind(!rHtand  it  ; 
whether  I  t(;ach  or  do  not  tciU'h  th(;  law,  those  who 
arc  certainly  in  the  truth  will  u(i<l(r.sl;in<l  it;  hut  those 
who  are  in  un(M!rt;iinly,  il"  I  teach  the  law,  will  know 
it  il'  1  do  not  teuch  tin;  law,  will  never  know  it.*' 
And  as  Ik;  rclh'clcd,  he  lelt  rnov(td  with  <^n-{!at  coni- 
])assion  foi-  th(;  vast  niullitu<l<!  suid^  down  in  uncer- 
tainty. That  de(;ided  him.  lie  would  ^o  to  those 
unhap|)y  beings  so  lon;^  minled  and  w;inderini^  amon^ 
their  own  ba<J  ihoui^hts,  and  ojKin  to  them  the;  ^j^ate  of 
immortality,  in  r(;v(!aliri_i(  to  th(;tn  the  lour  sublime 
verities,  which  he  had  now  (hstiovenid,  und  the  mutual 
(!onn(;ction  ol"  (!aus(!S. 

Once  (rhiarly  satislied  in  his  convictions  of  trutli, 
liis  first  thou;^lit  was  to  (!ommuiiicat(!  his  discovery  to 
his  fbrnuir  teacduirs,  tluj  son  of  Ivama  and  Arala  Kalama. 
Jlonest  thinkers,  mod(!st  in<juir(!rs,  tlusy,  he  f(;lt  as- 
sured, would  acce[)t  his  law  of  salvation  with  rejoicing. 


THE  GREAT  REVOLUTION  OF  REASON.      237 

But  ^v]lon  lie  sought  the  coveted  conference  witli  tliom, 
he  learned  that  they  were  dead.  To  whom  then  sliall 
he  first  announce  his  discovery,  that  they  may  assist 
in  publishing  it?  lie  will  go  to  Benares,  and  find  his 
five  fellow  monks  of  the  six  years'  seclusion.  They 
had  left  him  because  of  his  relaxing  the  severities  of 
asceticism,  and  had  resolved  never  to  return  into  fel- 
lowship with  him.  But  such  was  the  power  of  his 
presence  over  them,  that  no  sooner  did  he  appear 
among  tliem  than  they  received  him  with  submission 
and  cordiality,  and  listened  with  admiration  to  his  new 
instructions. 

At  first  they  addressed  him  by  the  title  of  Ayou- 
Bhmat,  or  Lord.  **  Call  me  not  Ayoushmat,"  he  said. 
"  Long  have  I  remained  unprofitable  to  you.  I  have 
procured  for  you  neither  aid  nor  well-being.  Now  I 
have  attained  to  a  clear  view  of  immortality.  I  am 
Buddha.  I  know  all.  I  behold  all.  I  have  blotted  out 
gin,  I  am  master  in  all  laws.  Come  that  I  may  teach 
you  the  law.  Listen,  give  ear  attentively.  I  will  ad- 
\Hse,  I  will  teach  you.  And  your  spirit  being  delivered 
by  the  destruction  of  sins,  and  by  manifest  knowledge 
of  yourselves,  you  will  put  an  end  to  your  births, 
you  will  arrive  at  the  condition  of  Brahmacharis,  and 
you  will  never  experience  another  existence  after  this. 
There  is  what  you  will  learn.'' 

To  those  five  disciples,  and  others  at  Benares,  did 
Buddha  first  preach  his  doctrine  of  salvation.  That 
city  was  then  a  stronghold  of  Brahmanism.  It  subse- 
quently became  no  less  sacred  in  the  eyes  of  Buddhists. 
Aft43r  no  very  prolonged  rosideuco  there,  he  removed 


238  COMPARATIVE    KELIQION. 

to  tlie  farther  north,  not  far  from  the  scene  of  his  former 
austerities,  and  spent  the  rest  of  his  days  at  Magadha, 
at  Rajagriha,  or  in  Kogala,  at  Qravasti,  to  the  north  of 
the  Ganges.  The  kings  of  those  two  countries  protect- 
ed him,  as  they  accepted  his  doctrines.  Rajagriha  was 
his  principal  residence,  from  which  he  performed  mis- 
sionary journeys  in  various  directions.  A  few  miles  from 
the  city  rose  a  mountain  called  the  Yulture  Peak, 
whose  deep  groves,  cool  springs,  and  points  of  pictur- 
esque view,  Buddha  loved  to  frequent.  It  was  there  that, 
surrounded  by  his  devotees,  he  preached  his  great 
system  called  "  The  Lotus  of  the  good  lawf  besides 
many  other  sutras. 

Near  the  gate  of  the  same  city  was  another  favorite 
haunt  of  the  enlightened  teacher.  It  was  the  Bambu 
Garden  of  Kalanda,  a  wealthy  merchant  who  had  at  first 
given  the  ground  to  the  Brahmans,  but  after  learning 
the  sublime  law,  took  it  from  them,  built  upon  it  a 
superb  mansion,  and  presented  the  whole  to  Buddha. 
In  that  place  were  several  of  the  most  celebrated 
apostles  of  Buddhism  converted  ;  and  there  did  the 
first  council  of  its  devotees  assemble  after  their  leader's 
death. 

These  and  other  places,  where  Buddha  resided  for 
longer  or  shorter  time,  are  the  holy  lands  of  Buddhi&t 
faith. 

Notwithstanding  the  protection  afibrded  him  by 
the  kings  of  Magadha  and  Kogala,  the  leader  of  the 
new  faith  had  a  severe  and  protracted  struggle  to 
maintain  with  those  of  the  old.  True,  he  spared  no 
criticism  of  his  adversaries ;  not  content  with  convict- 


THE  GKEAT  KEVOLUTION  OF  KEASON.      239 

ing  them  of  error  and  of  ignorance,  even  of  their  own 
system,  he  treated  them  as  hypocrites,  as  charlatans, 
as  jugglers,  charges  the  more  cutting  that  they  were 
well  merited.  His  influence  extended  only  at  the  ex- 
pense of  theirs;  and  from  no  means  that  could  promise 
to  arrest  a  progress  so  threatening  to  themselves  did 
they  refrain.  In  their  controversies  their  vanity  was 
not  less  interested  than  their  power.  Buddha  had  the 
advantage  over  them  of  thorough  knowledge  of  both 
their  system  and  his  own,  and  of  carrying  his  logic 
without  shrinking  to  all  its  own  legitimate  conclusions. 
The  legends  of  his  followers  represent  him  as  invariably 
victorious  in  debate.  But  such  was  the  power  and 
malignity  of  his  opponents,  that  but  for  the  protection 
of  his  royal  friends,  his  teaching  might  have  ended 
with  his  life,  before  it  had  reached  the  nation's  ear. 

The  career  of  Buddha,  as  teacher  of  the  divine  law, 
extended  to  more  than  forty  years ;  his  whole  life  to 
eighty.  It  was  on  a  missionary  journey,  and  passing 
through  the  country  of  the  Mallas,  that  he  felt  the 
approach  of  death.  In  a  forest,  and  under  a  grove 
of  ^ala  trees,  the  great  deliverer,  as  he  is  still  regarded 
by  hundreds  of  millions,  breathed  his  last ;  or,  in  the 
language  of  his  doctrine,  entered  into  IN'irvana. 

Buddhism  is  a  protest  against  Brahmanism,  in  the 
whole  breadth  and  depth  of  its  existence ;  dissenting 
from  its  sacerdotal  system,  from  its  worship,  and  from 
its  gods.  The  "  Enlightened  one,"  in  this  respect, 
passed  beyond  the  limits  observed  by  all  other  reform- 
ers. He  did  not  fall  back  upon  the  old  Yedic  script- 
ures, but  treated  as  null  everything  that  Brahmanism 


2^0  COMPARATIVE    RELIGION. 

was,  or  taught,  or  was  founded  on.  "Whatever  ele- 
ments of  it  remained  in  his  religion,  were  there,  not 
because  they  were  Brahmanical,  but  because  they 
belonged  to  his  own  system.  The  radical  pantheism 
of  the  Brahmans  he  ignored,  and  supplied  its  place  with 
nothing.  In  whatsoever  his  teaching  and  theirs  agreed, 
is  was  only  as  inherent  in  the  Hindu  way  of  thinking. 
Pantheism  was  opposed  with  atheism.  Man  was 
emancipated  from  the  fear  of  the  gods,  by  being  consti- 
tuted the  highest  intelligence  himself;  but  again 
enslaved  by  the  dread  of  future  transmigrations,  endless 
and  degrading ;  dying  only  to  enter  a  new  life,  in 
some  mean  and  loathsome  form,  and  after  a  series  of 
such  new  births,  for  thousands  or  millions  of  years,  to 
be  sent  back  in  a  human  body  to  commence  the  weary 
circle  again,  capable  of  change  and  suffering,  but 
incapable  of  death. 

This  universal  Hindu  belief  in  the  transmigra- 
tion of  imperfect  souls,  and  annihilation  of  con- 
scious personality  in  those  who  have  attained  per- 
fection, was  the  common  ground  occupied  by  both 
religions.  But  the  element  which  gave  Buddhism 
its  great  power  over  the  minds  of  men,  and  secured 
for  it  the  unparalleled  favor  Tvhich  it  received,  was 
its  profession  to  remove  the  ills  of  human  life,  and  the 
penalty  of  sin,  and  to  teach  every  man  how  to  secure 
that  blessedness  for  himself.  Its  ends  were  to  be 
attained  by  moral  duties,  and  tranquillity  of  spirit,  but 
especially,  and  in  the  highest  degree,  by  abstraction 
from  outward  things  and  from  all  sensations,  and  by 
reducing  the  measure  of  wants  to  the  lowest  degree. 


THE    GREAT   REVOLUTION    OF    REASON.  24:1 

Asceticism,  mostly  in  its  coenobite  form,  was  essential 
to  Buddhism  from  the  first.  Its  common  people,  who 
did  not  aim  at  so  high  a  state  of  perfection,  did.  not 
need  that  help,  bnt  its  saints,  from  the  very  nature 
of  the  case,  became  monks.  The  Buddha  Sakyamouni, 
the  monk  of  the  Sakyas,  himself  set  the  example. 
Thus,  Buddhism  was  founded  by  a  monk,  its  first 
apostles  were  monks,  it  was  carried  abroad  from  nation 
to  nation  by  monks,  and  its  monastic  institutions 
were  set  up  wherever  it  obtained  a  footing ;  and  its 
monks,  who  travelled  much  in  the  cause  of  their 
religion,  were  at  home  in  any  monastery  they  came  to. 
In  Brahmanism  the  gods  are  beings  of  terrific  power, 
but  of  the  same  common  descent  and  substance  with 
man  and  nature,  and  as  helpless  as  they  to  arrest  the 
career  of  life  in  its  fated  changes.  For  that  Brahman- 
ism can  only  hope  vaguel}^  from  absorption  into  the 
being  of  the  Supreme,  out  of  which  all  things  are 
continually  proceeding.  It  is  a  slavery  of  dread  to  gods 
who  have  no  power  to  save  in  the  life  to  come.  In 
original  Buddhism  the  only  thing  which  approaches 
the  idea  of  God  is  Buddha.  But  Buddha  signifies 
merely  "  The  Enlightened,''  and  is  a  rank  of  intelli- 
gence, to  which  Siddhartha  arrived  by  intellectual 
eff'ort,  and  to  which  others  who  labor  and  study  as  he 
did,  may  also  arrive.  His  followers  have  deified  him ; 
but  his  own  teaching  made  no  such  pretension,  took  no 
notice  of  beings  called  gods,  and  addressed  itself  as  that 
of  a  man  to  men,  masters  of  their  own  destiny.  Dread 
of  the  future  was  to  the  mind  of  the  Hindu,  and  other 
races  of  eastern  Asia,  not  a  dread  of  death,  but  of  life  ; 
II 


242  COMPARATIVE   KELIGION. 

endless  life  of  everchangi ng,  but  of  everlasting  anxiety 
and  misery.  Buddhism  was  designed  to  arrest  trans- 
migration, and  liberate  from  the  bondage  of  its  ever- 
recurring  cycles  of  penal  life.  Men  were  to  be  taught 
so  to  subordinate  all  affections  and  susceptibilities,  by 
denial,  as  to  arrest  the  development  of  all  capacity  to 
suffer  ;  in  the  course  of  this  mortal  stage  of  existence, 
so  to  discipline  the  vital  powers  that  they  shall  be 
perfectly  under  control  of  themselves,  and  insensible 
to  everything  external,  capable  of  retaining  themselves 
in  a  state  of  abstraction  from  all  embodiment,  without 
activity  and  without  affection  forever.  This  was  Nir- 
vana— virtually  salvation  by  death.  Accordingly,  it 
was  salvation,  not  of  men  alone,  but  also  of  the  crea- 
tures,— all  animate  creation.  By  enabling  men  to  enter 
Nirvana,  it  so  far  diminished  the  number  of  suffering 
animals,  whom  those  men  after  death  would  have  ani- 
mated. Let  the  law  of  Buddha  be  universally  acted 
upon,  and  the  cycle  of  life  must  terminate  always 
in  man,  and  the  life  wdiich  has  once  animated  the  lower 
creation  never  be  permitted  to  return  into  the  same 
channel  again.  Salvation  would  thus  be  extended  to  all 
creatures,  self-controlling  man,  the  highest  recognized 
power  in  life,,  constituting  himself  the  final  barrier 
to  its  revolution. 

The  founder  of  Buddhism  was  not  a  priest,  but  a 
philosopher.  His  religion  was  purely  the  fruit  of  his 
philosophy,  a  system  founded  not  upon  faith,  but  in 
reason — the  most  extreme  and  consistent  of  all 
branches  of  rationalism  that  the  world  saw.  Yet 
being  addressed  largely  to  the  popular  understanding, 


THE    GREAT   REVOLUTION    OF   REASON.  243 

it  was  from  tlie  first  flir  from  being  scientifically  stated. 
In  choosing  popular  expression,  its  founder,  although 
Lis  own  views  were  very  positive  and  definite,  left 
much  uncertainty  resting  upon  the  meaning  of  some 
of  liis  words,  giving  rise  to  speculation  and  conflict  of 
opinions  among  his  followers.  In  the  determination 
of  those  questions,  the  principal  authority  rests  with 
the  work  of  the  three  ancient  councils,  which  were 
held  at  long  intervals ;  the  first  immediately  after  his 
death. 

Buddha  himself  wrote  nothing;  but  his  sayings, 
carefully  treasured  in  memor^^  by  those  who  heard  them, 
were  collected  and  written  out  in  order,  by  his  princi- 
pal disciples,  who  after  his  death  met  in  council  at 
Rajagriha,  in  Magadha.  Under  three  heads,  as  the 
Sutras,  or  Discoveries  of  Buddha ;  the  Yinaya^  or 
Discipline,  and  the  Abhiclharma,  or  Philosophy,  they 
arranged  all  that  they  remembered  of  their  master's 
words,  and  all  that  they  could  understand  of  the 
meaning  of  his  doctrine.  The  whole  collection  received 
the  name  of  Tripitalca,  The  Three  Baskets,  and 
formed  the  sacred  canon,  the  standard  of  Buddhist 
faith  for  all  succeeding  time. 

Before  the  opening  of  the  Christian  era,  this  sin- 
gular belief  had  become  the  established  religion  in 
Northern  India,  had  spread  southward  over  the  land, 
and  nito  the  island  of  Ceylon ;  had  extended  thence  to 
Burmah,  and  adjoining  countries.  It  had  also  crossed 
the  Himalaya  mountains  into  Thibet,  and  been  invited 
into  China,  dividing  there  the  faith  of  the  people  with 
the  ancient   national    scriptures,   and   westward   had 


244  COMPARATIVE   RELIGION. 

extensively  prevailed  over  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
Avesta,  and  taking  the  place  of  some  of  the  declining 
idolatries.  That  dominion  it  continued  to  hold,  and 
in  some  directions,  especially  in  central  Asia,  to  extend 
for  centuries ;  and  in  all,  but  India  and  the  further 
west,  it  holds  its  footing  still. 


III. 

DARIUS  AS  THE  REFORMER  OF  AVESTAOT8M. 

"When  the  first  disciples  of  Buddha  were  preaching 
his  doctrines  in  India,  the  Medes  and  Persians,  under 
Cyrus  and  Oyaxares,  were  carrying  their  conquests 
over  Western  Asia.  In  the  issue  of  their  campaigns, 
the  Avestan  faith  was  asserted,  as  that  of  the  ruling 
people,  over  all  the  domain  of  ancient  civilization  from 
India  to  Greece  and  Egypt.  But  in  the  ages  inter- 
vening since  Zarathustra,  the  practice  of  that  religion 
had  suffered  corruption,  chiefly  at  the  hands  of  the 
Median  priesthood,  the  Magi,  in  a  way  constituting  it 
more  ritual  and  sacerdotal. 

Upon  the  creation  of  the  Medo-Persian  empire,  and 
the  death  of  Cyrus,  the  Magian  party  made  strenuous 
efforts  to  secure  themselves  in  power.  Cambyses  hav- 
ing slain  his  brother  Smerdis,  and  being  occupied  with 
the  conquest  of  Egypt,  Gomates,  a  Mede,  gave  out 
that  he  was  Smerdis,  who  contrary  to  rumor  had 
escaped  the  attempt  upon  his  life.  His  usurpation 
was  sustained  by  the  Median  party,  by  the  chiefs  of  the 
Magian  religion,  and  by  most  of  the  provinces,  no 
doubt  by  all  of  the  Median  connection  and  as  many  of 


THE  GREAT  REVOLUTION  OF  REASON.      245 

the  others  as  could  see  any  reasonable  hope  for  them- 
selves in  the  division  of  the  new  empire.  Of  the  subjects 
of  that  empire  by  far  the  greater  number  were  poly- 
theists  and  idolators.  The  Medes  were  only  approx- 
imately such,  but  their  stately  ceremonial  w^as  of  the 
style  practiced  by  the  idol  worshippers  of  the  west. 
As  far  as  religion  was  concerned,  they  had  more  favor 
to  expect  from  the  Medes  than  the  Persians. 

Gomates  took  care  to  extend  special  patronage  to 
the  Magian  religion  and  its  priesthood,  and,  wherever 
his  rule  was  allowed,  to  suppress  the  Avestan.  After 
the  accidental  death  of  Cambyses,  Gomates  reigned 
over  the  whole  empire.  A  number  of  Persian  noble- 
men conspired  against  him,  and  slew  him,  and  set  Da- 
rius, son  of  Hystaspes,  of  the  royal  Achsemeni-an  line 
of  Persia,  on  the  throne.  Darius,  in  reducing  the 
rebellious  prov^inces,  and  re-establishing  the  Persian 
dynasty,  removed  the  Magian  innovations,  and  set  up 
again  the  Avestan  worship,  not  in  its  primitive,  bat 
in  its  own  liturgical  type  ;  as  he  testifies  for  himself  in 
the  Behistun  inscription. 

*^  Says  Darius  the  King.  The  empire,  which  had 
been  taken  away  from  our  family,  that  I  recovered. 
I  established  it  in  its  place.  As  (it  was)  before,  so  I 
made  (it).  The  temples  which  Gomates  the  Magian 
had  destroyed,  I  rebuilt.  The  sacred  ofiices  of  the 
state,  both  the  religious  chants  and  the  worship,  (I  re- 
stored) to  the  people,  which  Gomates  the  Magian  had 
deprived  them  of.  I  established  the  state  in  its  place, 
both  Persia  and  Media,  and  the  other  provinces.  As 
(it  was)  before,  so  I  restored  what  (had  been)  taken 


24:6  COMPARATIVE    BELIGION. 

awaj.  By  the  grace  of  Auramazda  I  did  (this).  I  ar- 
ranged so  that  I  estabhshed  our  family  in  its  place. 
As  it  was  before,  so  I  arranged  (it),  by  the  grace  of 
Auramazda,  so  that  Gomates  the  Magian  should  not 
supersede  our  family."  * 

The  son  of  Hystaspes  was  a  great  king  and  a  great 
reformer  ;  but  he  either  did  not  know,  or  did  not  think 
it  practicable  to  restore  Avestanism  in  all  its  pristine 
simplicity.  He  re-established  it  in  opposition  to  Ma- 
gism  ;  but  not  without  some  of  the  Magian  practices. 
Still,  the  word  rendered  temples  cannot  be  understood 
to  be  temples  of  the  gods,  as  Oppert  gives  it.  For, 
whatever  the  Great  King  meant,  he  certainly  did  not 
mean  to  say  that  he  restored  polytheism.  He  was  not 
to  such  a  degree  ignorant  of  the  creed  he  professed  and 
defended.  Cyrus,  Cambyses,  Darius,  Xerxes  showed 
such  marked  favor  to  monotheists,  and  contempt  for 
polytheists  and  idolators  as  to  leave  no  room  for 
doubt  touching  their  views  on  that  subject.  In  their 
pacified  dominions  they  were  cautious,  and  respected 
recognized  institutions  ;  but  on  foreign  campaigns,  or 
in  dealing  with  rebellion,  they  showed  their  detestation 
of  idolatry  as  strongly  as  ever  Puritan  did,  and  with 
less  restraint  of  violence.  In  the  wars  wherebj  Da- 
rius reduced  the  revolted  provinces,  he  treated  the 
semi-idolatry  of  the  Magi  with  great  severity.  The 
spiritual  potentates,  who  constituted  the  court  of  Aura- 
mazda, he  reverenced,  as  did  all  believers  in  his  creed, 
and  believed  he  had  enjoyed  their  aid  as  angels  of  God, 

*  Rawlinson's  Herodotus.  B.  III.  App.  Note  C.     Oppert,  Ex- 
ped.  en  Mesopotamie,  II.  244. 


THE    GREAT   REVOLUTION    OF   REASON.  247 

but  it  is  by  the  power  and  grace  of  Auramazda,  and 
not  by  theirs,  that  he  prospers,  and  he  only  mentions 
them  once  or  twice,  while  Auramazda  is  gratefully 
mentioned  in  every  paragraph  of  his  great  historical 
inscription.  And  Xerxes,  in  his  invasion  of  Greece, 
burned  every  temple  of  the  gods  on  the  line  of  his 
march. 

The  effect  of  that  Medo-Persian  conquest  was  im- 
mense, as  much  religious  as  political.  It  overthrew, 
and  finally  crushed  out  the  strength  of  the  great  poly- 
theistic nations,  so  long  the  rulers  in  "Western  Asia. 
The  Babylonian  empire  fell  before  it,  never  more  to 
rise ;  the  kingdom  of  Lydia  was  extinguished,  and  the 
Greeks  of  Asia  and  the  islands  brought  into  subjection  ; 
the  Phoenicians  were  made  to  furnish  its  navy,  and 
Egypt  was  reduced  to  a  state  of  humiliation  from 
wliich  she  never  rose  to  independence  again.  The 
polytheistic  and  idolatrous  systems  of  Assyria  and 
Bab^donia  fell  with  the  nations  which  sustained  them. 
That  of  Lydia  lost  all  means  of  recommending  itself  to 
the  world.  Falling  in  with  that  of  the  neighboring 
Greeks,  to  which  it  seems  to  have  been  similar,  it  must 
have  held  its  place  among  the  people  somewhat  longer, 
but  obscurely.  And  the  effect  of  contact  with  the 
Persians  upon  the  Greeks,  was  greatly  to  diminish 
their  faith  in  their  own  mythology — a  faith  already 
declining  from  other  causes.  The  idolatrous  worship 
of  Egypt  was  a  laughing  stock  to  the  Persians.  Cam- 
byses  requested  to  see  the  god  over  whom  his  new  sub- 
jects were  rejoicing.  The  bull  Apis  was  exhibited  to 
him,  by  the  attendant  priests.     "  Blockheads,  to  think 


248  COMPAEATIYE   KELIGION. 

that  gods  become  like  this,  of  flesh  and  blood,  and  sen- 
sible to  steel !  "  exclaimed  the  great  hiug,  and  struck 
his  sword  into  the  animal. 

That  old  Egyptian  religion  never  submitted  to  re- 
form, but  from  that  day  it  was  constrained  to  divide 
its  jurisdiction  with  foreigners  who  despised  it,  with 
freethinking  Greeks,  and  monotheistic  Persians,  and 
Hebrews,  while  it  pursued  its  own  career  of  baseness, 
dragging  down  the  subject  people  who  practiced  it, 
until  it  became  an  object  of  contempt  even  to  poly- 
theistic Romans,  exposed  as  such  in  the  bitter  sarcasm 
of  Juvenal,  and  finally,  after  the  lapse  of  j3enturies, 
went  into  extinction  before  the  a])proach  of  Christi- 
anity, yet  not  without  imposing  upon  it  some  inherit- 
ance of  error.  And  the  Israelites,  who  notwithstand- 
ing their  careful  and  exalted  monotheistic  instruction, 
had  never  in  even  their  best  days,  entirely  subdued 
the  tendencies  to  idolatry  among  themselves,  after 
their  captivity  in  Babylon,  and  kindly  relations  with 
the  Persians,  were  completely  emancipated  from  that 
infatuation,  l^o  doubt  other  causes  also  went  to  pro- 
duce that  effect,  but  it  began  with  Persian  rule  in 
Syria  and  Babylonia. 

The  Persians  showed  great  respect  for  the  Jews. 
In  the  midst  of  the  polytheistic  and  idolatrous  nations 
now  added  to  their  dominion,  they  found  a  people  who, 
like  themselves,  adhered  to  the  doctrine  of  one  only 
God,  the  Creator  and  Kuler  of  all  things,  and  imme- 
diately regarded  them  with  special  interest.  Cyrus  re- 
cognized the  God  of  the  Jews  as  the  God  of  his  fathers, 
and  his  own,  and  one  of  the  first  acts  of  his  reign  was  to 


THE  GREAT  REVOLUTION  OF  REASON.      24:9 

grant  their  captives  freedom  to  return  to  their  own  land, 
to  rebuild  their  city  and  temple,  and  furnished  them 
with  all  that  was  necessary  for  their  safety  and  pro- 
vision on  the  journey  and  when  they  should  arrive. 
And  that  favor  of  the  first  Persian  king  was  continued 
by  Darius  and  Artaxerxes. 

In  brief,  the  establishment  of  the  Persian  empire 
was  a  deadly  blow  to  the  ancient  polytheistic  systems 
of  the  nations  which  had  before  governed  Western 
Asia.  They  did  not  all  cease  to  be,  but  they  all  ceased 
to  rule,  and  ceased  to  be  the  honored  examples  of 
religion  before  the  civilized  w^orld.  And  these  effects 
were  wrought  at  the  very  time  when  Buddhism  was 
displacing  the  idolatry  of  the  Brahmans  in  India, 
and  the  moral  rationalism  of  Confucius  was  establish- 
ino-  itself  in  China. 

When  Persia  fell,  Greece  took  possession  of  her 
empire;  and  the  language  of  Greece  never  left  the 
lands  of  Western  Asia,  until  under  a  stronger  protector 
it  had  preached  the  Gospel  of  Christ. 

The  religion  of  the  Persians  was  greatly  corrupted 
before  the  Macedonian  conquest,  and  the  Greeks  in 
Alexander's  times  were  polytheists,  as  far  as  they  were 
anything  religiously,  but  neither  under  later  Persian 
nor  Greek  did  the  old  idolatrous  systems  of  Western 
Asia  revive  to  their  former  power,  and  that  of  Greece, 
thousrh  dividins:  influence  with  them,  never  took  their 
place. 


250  COMPARATIVE   RELIGION. 

lY. 

GREECE  IN  RELIGIOUS    PROGRESS. 

Greeks  never  were  an  eminently  religious  people. 
Compared  with  Egyptians,  Hebrews,  or  Hindus,  they 
always  carried  their  religion  lightly  about  them. 
Their  gods  early  assumed  a  human  and  aesthetic  char- 
acter. That  part  of  their  history  to  which  the  Epic 
poems  belong  was  their  period  of  strongest  and  sim- 
plest faith.  The  prevailing  spirit  of  the  epic  tales,  as 
well  as  the  epic  hymns,  is  pietj^  but  piety  towards  a 
familiar  and  graceful  mythology.  It  might  have  been 
otherwise,  but  that  at  an  earlier  date,  the  hereditary 
faith  of  the  Hellenic  people  had  been  subjected  to  in- 
novations of  a  nature  to  impair  its  weight  and  solem- 
nity, which  the  innovations  did  not  inherit. 

The  scene  of  that  great  conflict  of  the  gods  was 
Thessaly.  And  it  was  achieved  so  long  before  the 
time  of  Homer  that  he  could  without  impropriety  sing 
of  a  Thessalian  prince,  as  well  as  all  the  rest  of  the 
Greeks,  as  belonging  to  the  new  creed. 

The  old  Hellenic  religion  was  a  worship  of  nature. 
Its  gods  were  Heaven  and  Earth,  Sea  and  Land,  Sun 
and  Moon,  Day  and  Night,  and  the  Dawn,  rivers  and 
mountains,  and  so  on,  being  identical  in  kind  with 
those  of  the  Yedic  hymns. 

At  the  head  of  the  new  religion  was  a  God  of  en- 
tirely different  character,  separate  from  and  indepen- 
dent of  nature,  ruling  over  all  things  but  allegorical  of 
nothing.     Such  were  also  the  gods  who  came  into  the 


THE  GREAT  REVOLUTION  OF  REASON.      251 

system  with  him.  Apollo,  for  example,  took  the  place 
of  Helins  (the  Sun)  and  Artemis,  of  Selene,  (the  Moon). 
The  new  gods  were  personal  and  anthropomorphic, 
rulers  over  natm-e,  and  not  themselves  powers  or  ele- 
ments of  nature. 

They  are  not  the  mere  growth  of  the  old  gods  into 
anthropomorphic  personality.  For  they  come  into 
power  in  addition  to  the  old.  In  some  cases  they  dis- 
place the  old,  in  others  they  overrule  them,  and  some 
divide  jurisdiction  with  them  :  Zeus  displaces  Cronus, 
Poseidon  overrules  Oceanus,  Athena  succeeds  Metis, 
and  Dionysus  divides  the  honors  of  vegetation  with 
Demeter,  herself  remodelled  by  the  same  process  of 
innovation. 

They  come  with  entirely  different  names,  some  of 
which  are  distinctly  foreign.  And  their  attributes 
were  in  many  respects  different  from  those  of  the  gods, 
whom  they  superseded.  In  short  most  of  them  were 
not  Aryan  conceptions  originally.  Although  in  course 
of  tim.e,  re-conceived  in  Aryan  minds,  they  were  gods 
of  Syrian,  or  Egyptian  character. 

It  was  a  revolution  which  marked  a  broad  era  in 
Greek  mythology ;  that  whereby  Zeus  violently 
usurped  the  throne  of  his  father. 

All  parts  of  the  old  mythology,  however,  were  not 
abolished.  What  belonged  most  intimately  to  the  life 
of  the  peasantry,  the  allegorical  gods  of  the  hills  and 
woods  and  streams,  of  the  rivers  and  seas,  was  retained. 
It  is  always  a  difficult  and  tedious  process,  by  natural 
means  to  change  the  religious  views  of  a  peasantry, 
especially  if  uneducated.     But  aU  even  that  part  of  the 


252  COMPARATIVE    RELIGION. 

old  worship  of  natui-e,  took,  in  course  of  time,  in  greater 
or  less  degree,  the  colors  of  the  new  mythology. 

As  the  scene  of  the  revolution  was  Thessaly,  so  the 
earliest  chief  seat  of  the  new  faith  was  Dodona,  in 
Epirus,  if  not  also  in  Thessaly. 

JS'ow  it  is  to  be  remarked  of  this  new  religion,  first, 
that  its  chief  deity  is  without  a  proper  name.  Zeus 
is  a  purely  Aryan  word,  and  derived  from  the  I^ature 
worship  of  the  Aryans,  but  to  the  Greeks  that  was  so 
far  in  the  past  as  to  be  entirely  forgotten.  In  their 
language,  from  Homeric  times,  it  meant  only  God  the 
supreme. 

Secondly,  that  new  religion  came  from  the  south 
and  never  appeared  further  north  than  its  southern 
advocates  carried  it. 

Thirdly,  all  the  traditions  belonging  to  it  are  of  the 
south  in  their  origin. 

The  Hellenic  people  came  into  Greece  by  the  north, 
wdiile  the  Pelasgi,  a  partially  civilized  people,  were 
already  in  possession  of  the  south.  The  new  religion 
must  have  been  first  that  of  the  Pelasgi. 

The  conflict  between  the  two  religions  03curred, 
where  first  the  two  races  met  in  full  national  force. 
And  that  was  certainly  in  Thessal^^  and  about  its  lati- 
tude. And,  as  in  similar  cases,  the  religion  of  the  more 
civilized  people  prevailed  over  that  of  the  ruder  though 
stronger  incomers  :  while  in  the  retaining  of  a  part  of 
the  old  mj^thology  and  the  assignment  of  the  later  to 
it  as  a  descendant,  though  a  rebellious  descendant,  we 
read  the  practical  compromise  resulting  from  the  sub- 
Bequent  union  of  the  two  races  into  one  people. 


THE  GREAT  KEVOLUTIOX  OF^  EEASON.      253 

As'ain,  the  elements  of  civilization  came  into  Greece 
by  ^vaJ  of  the  sea,  from  the  east  and  from  the  south. 
The  lonians,  from  time  immemorial,  in  communication 
with  Phenicia  and  Egypt,  were  the  principal  branch 
of  the  Pelasgi. 

A  revolution  also  took  place  at  an  early  period  in 
the  religion  of  Upper  Egypt.  Khem,  the  chief  god  of 
the  country,  was  displaced  in  favor  of  Amun.  This 
occurred  when  the  population  in  the  south  of  Egypt 
became  strong  enough  to  give  Thebes  the  predomi- 
nance of  a  capital  city.  And  the  worship  of  Amun  was 
introduced  into  Thebes  from  Ethiopia,  a  fact  regularly 
commemorated  in  the  temple  service  at  Thebes. 

In  Ethiopia,  Amun  was  the  principal,  if  not  primi- 
tively the  sole  object  of  worship.  The  Etliiopian  peo- 
ple showed  great  zeal  in  regard  to  him.  After  his 
w^orship  had  been  accepted  in  Thebes  it  was  planted 
by  the  co-operation  of  Thebes  and  Meroe  in  the  oasis 
of  El  Siwah,  on  the  caravan  route  between  Meroe  and 
the  Mediterranean  coast.  And  relations  of  kindred 
were  always  recognized  between  the  temple  in  El 
Siwah  (Ammonium)  and  that  of  Dodona.* 

The  attributes  of  Amun,  as  he  appeared  after  tak- 
ing the  place  of  Khem,  and  before  he  became  con- 
founded with  the  ram-headed  god  N'um,  were  in  the 
main,  those  of  the  ancient  Zeus.  ''  King  of  the  gods" 
is  the  epithet  regularly  applied  to  Amun  on  the  monu- 
ments, and  as  occupying  the  place  of  Khem,  he  is  also 
called  the  Father  of  men.  The  system  of  mythology 
connected  with  him  is  also  similar. 

*  Herodotus  B.  11,  chapters  42-56. 


254  COMPARATIVE   RELIGION. 

In  the  temple  of  Jupiter  at  Dodona,  the  most 
ancient  in  Greece,  a  tradition  was  retained  that  the 
rehgion  there  observed  had  been  brought  from  Egypt. 
And  when  Herodotus  went  to  Egyptian  Tliebes,  he 
found  a  record  there  to  the  same  purport. 

In  the  temple  at  Dodona,  it  was  also  taught  that 
the  Pelasgi  received  their  religion  from  abroad,  and 
long  observed  the  practice  of  refraining  from  uttering 
the  name  of  their  object  of  worship,  and  that  the 
names  were  ultimately  learned  from  abroad  chiefly 
from  Egypt.  They  would  not,  however,  use  them 
without  consulting  the  oracle  at  Dodona.  And  in  the 
same  record  it  was  noted  that  the  Hellenes  received 
their  information  about  the  gods  from  the  Pelasgi. 

Although  the  Greeks  never  used  it  among  them- 
selves, yet  they  always  recognized  Amun  as  the  prop- 
er name  of  the  deity  whom  they  designated  simply 
as  God,  or  as  the  Father  God,  by  a  name  of  their 
own,  Zeus  or  Zeus  Pater. 

Amun,  in  the  tons^ue  to  which  it  belono^s,  sio^nifies 
the  unseen,  or  inscrutable,  and  was  originally,  no  doubt 
a  purer  recognition  of  a  spiritual  god  than  either  the 
symbolical  service  of  Egypt  or  the  allegorical  nature 
worship  of  the  Aryans.  Most  likely,  its  original  supe- 
riority was  the  force  which  carried  it  so  far.  Its  later 
corruption  is  the  fate  of  every  religion  left  to  the 
unaided  hands  of  man. 

In  the  time  of  Homer,  Greece  had  not  forgotten 
the  source  of  her  recently  adopted  religion.  Jupiter 
still  occasionally  left  his  palace  on  Olympus,  to  pay 
long  and  cordial  visits  to   the   Ethiopians  who  were 


THE   GREAT   REYOLUTION    OF    REASON.  255 

still  regarded  as  a  peculiarly  holy  people.  Ethiopia 
was,  to  early  Greece,  the  holy  land  whithor  she  referred 
her  conceptions  of  blameless  purity  and  perfect  happi- 
ness.* And  such  it  also  was  to  the  worshipper  of  Amun 
at  Thebes. 

Amun  was  established  in  Egypt  by  the  predom- 
inance of  Thebes,  in  the  twelfth  dynasty  of  Egyptian 
kings,  but  did  not  usurp  the  place  of  Khem  until  the 
eighteenth  dynasty.  His  name  was  early  connected 
with  that  of  the  Egyptian  sun  god,  Ra  ;  but  the  two 
personages  were  never  confounded.  Subsequently  Am- 
un, in  Egyptian  mythology  became  one  with  the  ram- 
headed  god  J^Tum,  and  that  as  early  as  the  reign  of  the 
second  Rameses  in  the  nineteenth  dynasty. 

The  peculiar  epithets  of  Jupiter  are  those  of  Amun, 
after  he  took  the  place  of  Khem,  and  before  he  was 
confounded  with  ]S"um.  Hence,  we  may  infer  that 
his  worship  was  not  brought  into  Greece  directly  from 
Ethiopia,  but  from  Thebes,  most  likely  during  the 
early  part  of  the  18th  dynasty  of  Egyptian  kings  :  or 
somewhere  between  14  and  16  centuries  before  Christ. 
Accepted  most  reverentially  by  the  Pelasgi  of  the  south 
of  Greece,  who  worshipped  the  god  without  a  name, 
that  religion  was  afterwards  communicated  by  them  to 
the  ruder  tribes  migrating  in  upon  them  from  the  north. 

It  was  not  until  after  the  Trojan  war  that  the  most 
powerful  branches  of  the  Hellenic  people  succeeded 
in  establishing  their  mastery  south  of  Mount  Oeta. 
But  if  Homer  is  correct,  as  he  most  likely  is,  in  repre- 
senting the  Hellenes,  as  worshippers  of  Jupiter  in  the 

*  Iliad  B.  1,  423. 


256  COMPARATIVE    KELIGIOX. 

time  of  the  Trojan  war,  then  the  great  religious  revo- 
hition  most  have  occurred  while  their  principal  force 
had  not  got  further  south  than  Thessalj.  And  its 
adoption  by  them  must  have  been  very  recent  at  that 
date.  The  poems  of  Homer  certainly  did  much  to 
confirm  the  revolution  which  substituted  an  anthropo- 
morphic religion  for  a  pure  worship  of  nature. 

Herodotus  is  probably  correct,  therefore,  when  he 
speaks  of  the  system  as  recent  in  the  time  of  Homer 
himself;  and  of  Homer  and  Hesiod  as  having  the 
principal  hand  in  giving  it  Hellenic  shape. 

Original  Amun  worship  was  simple.  Only  as 
other  notions  and  practices  were  appended  to  it  did 
it  assume  the  character  of  a  mythological  system. 
And  that  of  classic  Greece  was,  long  after  Homer, 
a  growing  system.  For  several  of  its  divine  per- 
sonages were  introduced  from  different  quarters,  from 
Syria,  Asia  Minor,  and  elsewhere,  as  well  as  from 
Egypt,  and  were  harmonized  together  by  identification 
with  older  gods,  or  by  being  assigned  as  children  to 
them  or  to  Jupiter. 

Instead  of  supercihously  rejecting,  as  some  do, 
Greek  tradition  of  identity  between  the  gods  of 
Bodona  and  Ammonium,  I  am  convinced  that  the 
great  revolution  of  Greek  religion,  from  which  the 
sentiment  of  the  Prometheus  springs,  and  the  Jupiter 
worship  introduced  thereby,  can  be  truly  accounted 
for  only  by  following  its  indications. 

The  old  Hellenic  migrations  were  conducted  reli- 
giously :  but  in  the  progress  of  commerce,  colonies  were 
planted  in  great  numbers  merely  for  purposes  of  gain, 


THE    GEEAT    REVOLUTION    OF    REASON.  257 

and  both  government  and  religion  were  made  subor- 
dinate to  that  ruHng  motive.  In  the  widely  ramified 
Ionian  colonies,  for  example,  the  religions  observances 
of  the  mother  country  lost  much  of  their  original  hokl 
upon  the  mind ;  and  the  civil  revolutions  which,  witli- 
in  the  same  time,  took  place  over  the  greater  part  of 
the  Greek  world,  went  also  to  shake  the  foundations 
of  religious  conviction.  The  farming  population,  and 
especially  the  Doric  race,  were  reverential  of  their  gods 
and  of  all  religious  rites ;  but  the  commercial  classes 
w^ere,  to  say  the  least,  exceedingly  liberal,  on  those 
subjects,  and  the  progress  of  education  among  them 
increased  that  freedom  of  thinking. 

Of  that  revolutionary  period  in  Greek  politics,  the 
very  centre  was  the  sixth  century  before  Christ,  and 
chief  among  the  leaders  in  it  were  those  men  subse- 
quently honored  by  grateful  remembrance  with  the 
name  of  Sages, — the  so-called  seven,  although  far  from 
limited  to  that  mystic  number.  Every  free  state  of 
Greece  had  its  sage,  or  leading  reformer.  At  the  head 
of  all  were  Solon  and  Thales. 

In  the  process  of  learning  to  think  of  gods  as  being 
actuated  by  like  passions  with  themselves,  Greeks 
learned  also  to  think  of  them  with  familiarity.  Homer 
depicted  them  with  the  utmost  freedom,  treating  their 
characters  and  conduct  as  if  they  were  beings  born  of 
his  own  invention.  His  gods  are  larger,  stronger, 
lighter  and  more  beautiful  than  human  beings,  but 
neither  wiser. nor  better;  and  as  passionate  and  self- 
willed  as  inexperienced  youth. 

Further  thinking  restored  to  the  humanized  gods 


258  COMPARATIVE    RELIGION. 

some  features  of  those  departments  of  nature  over 
which  thev  presided.  In  the  remains  of  sacred  lyric  po- 
etrj^  tliey  appear  with  more  dignity,  and  are  actuated 
by  a  higher  sense  of  justice.  A  profounder  faith  is  also 
manifested  in  the  wisdom  of  their  providential  govern- 
ment, strengthened  by  a  reaction  in  favor  of  regarding 
them  in  the  light  of  the  old  nature-worship. 

Again,  that  latter  tendency  was  counteracted,  on 
one  hand,  by  the  speculations  on  natural  things  of  the 
^reat  Ionic  school  of  philosophy,  and  on  the  other,  by 
the  impersonations  of  divine  character  in  art ;  the  latter 
deciding  the  anthropomorphic  tendency,  and  the  for- 
mer going  to  shake  belief  in  the  direction  of  nature  by 
any  agency  save  its  own. 

Development  of  solemn  lyric  into  tragedy,  the 
growth  of  art,  and  the  progress  of  philosophy  magnilied 
their  respective  aims.  Poetry  and  art  produced  their 
efiects  most  irnxUiediately  upon  the  common  mind,  and 
sustained  a  popular  worship  of  human-gods,  conceived 
of  as  depicted  in  beautiful  and  majestic  statues,  and 
resident  in  temples  almost  worthy  to  be  adored. 

But  the  Hellenic  mind  was  not  only  susceptible  of 
beauty  in  an  uncommon  degree,  it  was  also  keenly 
logical.  Ln  the  order  of  nature,  the  preponderance  of 
the  latter  follows  that  of  the  former.  Such  a  people 
are  first  poetical,  then  speculative,  and  then  critical. 
So  in  Greece,  the  poets  came  first,  and  for  many  gen- 
erations reigned  alone.  They  also  afterwards  outran 
the  early  philosophers  in  popular  influence.  But  the 
time  followed  when  that  order  was  reversed,  and  the 
spirit  of  the  nation  became  predominantly  critical  and 


THE    GKEAT    REVOLUTION    OF    KEASON.  259 

skeptical.  The  course  of  religion  separated  from  that 
of  intelligence.  Poetry  and  Art  shaped,  adorned  and 
sustained  the  former,  and  Philosophy  more  slowly 
developed  the  latter. 

All  the  so-called  sages  were  statesmen,  and  their 
philosophy  was  the  practical  wisdom  of  statesmen,  in 
whose  eyes  everything  else  was  secondary  to  the  order 
and  welfare  of  the  state.  Without  positively  withdraw- 
ing any  reverence  from  religion,  and  in  many  cases 
piously  defending  it,  those  men,  by  the  policy  they 
pursued,  effectually  undermined  its  practical  power  in 
the  life  of  Greece.  The  whole  movement  in  which 
they  were  concerned  was  rationalistic,  going  to  over- 
throw old  civil  institutions  blended  with  religion,  and 
to  set  up  new,  upon  entirely  rational  grounds,  and,  in 
general,  to  elevate  the  nature  of  man,  and  recognize 
him  as  master  of  his  own  destiny.  That  effect  was 
sustained  by  the  speculations  of  the  Ionic  school  of 
philosophy,  which  opened  its  career  in  the  teaching  of 
Thales,  one  of  the  sages.  And  successive  schools  and 
sects  prolonged  and  expanded  the  current  of  rational 
discussion. 

Greek  religion,  except  in  its  ceremonies  and  anni- 
versary festivals,  through  all  the  succeeding  time 
of  Greek  superiority,  occupied  singularly  little  place 
among  the  great  elements  of  Greek  culture.  It  was 
overshadowed  by  statesmanship  and  politics,  winnowed 
by  philosophy  and  criticism,  and  almost  converted  into 
art.  In  the  degeneracy  of  Athens,  after  her  humilia- 
tion under  Macedon,  education  declined,  political  dis- 
cussion was  restrained,   and  a  blind^   and  somewhat 


260  COMPAEATIYE    RELIGION. 

timid  superstition,  fastidiously  respectful  of  all  gods, 
grew  up,  but  only  as  the  eiFect  of  unsettled  belief  feel- 
ing after  something  to  rest  upon. 

Notwithstanding  their  general  levity  of  opinion 
about  the  gods,  the  Greek  people  at  all  times  believed 
in  an  impersonal  and  invisible  power,  the  Deity,  which 
ruled  over  all,  and  to  whom  even  the  gods  were  sub- 
ject. The  Deity  was  everlasting,  ahnighty,  and  of 
inflexible  purpose,  the  gods  were  of  limited  duration 
and  power,  and  as  changeable  as  human  will.  But 
they  were  objects  of  worship,  because  they  could 
be  influenced,  the  Deity  was  not  worshipped,  be- 
cause no  intercession  or  sacrifice  could  atiect  that 
inflexible  destiny.  Accordingly,  the  course  of  Greek 
religion  among  the  masses  descended  to  the  condition 
of  worshipping  deified  human  attributes,  represented 
in  material  images,  and  which  educated  men  rejected 
with  pity  or  contempt. 

V. RELIGION    IN    THE    ROMAN    REPUBLIC. 

A  revolution  of  the  same  chai-acter  occurred  within 
the  same  period,  at  Rome,  but  in  that  case,  among  a 
people  of  profoundly  earnest  religious  feeling.  ISTuma 
had  given  Rome  a  religious  constitution  as  strictly  legal 
as  the  systems  of  the  east,  and  which  also,  like  them, 
professed  to  be  revealed,  and  established  with  divine 
sanction  ;  but  what  the  nature  of  its  creed  must  forever 
remain  unknowu.  The  books  constituting  the  sacred 
canon  of  Rome  were  lost  in  the  course  of  succeeding 
revolution.  One  copy  of  them,  deposited  in  a  tomb, 
was  discovered  in  the  year  181  b.  c,  and,  after  inspec- 
tion by  tlie  Praetor,  was  at  his  instance,  condemned  by 


THE  GREAT  REVOLUTION  OF  REASON.      261 

tlie  senate  to  be  burned,  as  being  of  a  nature  to  subvert 
the  existing  religion.  Plainly,  the  religious  practices 
of  Rome  in  the  second  century  before  Christ  were  not 
justified  by  the  old  scriptures,  on  which  they  professed 
to  be  founded. 

The  name  of  Servius  Tullius,  his  birth  and  his 
death,  and  the  manner  of  his  accession  to  the  throne, 
are  all  wrapped  in  fable ;  but  some  of  his  public  acts 
are  the  most  indubitable  of  history.  The  constitution 
which  he  gave  the  Roman  people  was  the  foundation 
of  all  their  subsequent  greatness.  It  must  have  been 
framed  about  the  middle  of  the  sixth  century  before 
Christ.  At  subsequent  dates  it  received  numerous 
additions  and  limitations,  but  substantially  continued 
to  be  the  government  of  Rome,  as  long  as  her  freedom 
lasted.  It  was  the  iron  framework  which  upheld  the 
structure  of  her  power  in  the  civil  wars,  and  the  long 
succeeding  precarious  rule  of  her  emperors,  until  the 
whole  was  set  aside  by  the  new  constitution  of  Con- 
stantine. 

The  revolution  of  Servius  Tullius  was  designed  to 
be  of  an  entirely  civil  and  military  nature,  and  care- 
fully shunned  all  changes  of  religion.  The  Romans 
of  republican  days  were  religious,  but  not  mystical. 
Their  religion  was  earnest,  like  everything  else  about 
them ;  but  it  was  not  a  religion  in  the  sense  in  which 
that  of  Egypt  or  of  Syria  was  religion.  It  was 
virtue,  rendering  w^hat  was  due  to  gods  and  men  ;  and 
had  less  view  to  a  future  world  than  to  the  present. 
The  Roman  regarded  religion  as  divine  law,  and  all 
law  as  having  a  religious  sanction.     In  his  mind,  the 


262  COMPAEATIVE    KELIGION. 

liio^Iiest  virtiiG  was  veneration  for  law,  subordinate  to 
which  went  on  the  conflict  of  the  two  great  energies, 
consisting  of  adherence  to  old  established  customs, 
privileges,  and  duties,  and  on  the  other  side,  the  as  pro- 
foundly earnest  purpose  to  secure  an  equal  distribution 
of  rights  to  all  citizens.  The  religion  of  Rome  lay  at 
the  basis  of  her  ancient  laws,  imbedded  in  them.  It 
was  a  legal  religion.  Faith  in  it  was  real,  working 
itself  out  in  an  elevated  and  severe  morality  ;  but  did 
not  view  it  so  much  as  a  promise  or  provision  for  a 
life  beyond  the  grave,  as  the  spiritual  in  human  char- 
acter in  this  life. 

Roman  gods  were  the  supernatural  protectors  of 
Roman  interests,  the  spiritual  judges  of  right  and 
wrong  in  human  affairs.  We  cannot  conceive  of  Ro- 
mans of  those  early  days  spending  their  lives  in  theo- 
8ophic  speculation,  in  self-separation  from  the  present 
world  in  hopes  of  attaining  blessedness  in  another. 
Romans  gave  extreme  examples  of  self-sacrifice,  and 
denial  of  the  strongest  and  dearest  affections ;  but  it 
was  always  for  Rome,  not  for  heaven.  It  was  patriot- 
ism, not  religion;  or  rather,  it  was  the  religion  of  patri- 
otism. Did  Mucins  plunge  himself  into  the  gulf,  it 
was  to  save  Rome.  Did  Decius  offer  himself  to  the 
gods  below,  it  was  to  purchase  a  victory  for  Rome. 
Did  a  Brutus  or  a  Manlius  send  to  death  the  dearest 
to  their  hearts,  it  was  not  to  propitiate  a  Moloch  or  a 
Juggernath ;  it  was  not  to  secure  for  themselves,  or  for 
any  one  else,  a  life  beyond  the  grave,  but  to  defend 
the  safety  of  Rome.  The  religion  of  republican  Ro- 
mans was  a  deified  virtue,  the  crown  of  which  was 


THE  GKEAT  REVOLUTION  OF  REASON.      263 

patriotism.  They  solemnly  honored  their  gods ;  but 
their  gods  were  moral  gods,  whose  existence  was 
wrapped  up  in  the  interests  of  the  Roman  state. 
Patriotism  w^as  the  centre  of  Roman  virtue,  and  that 
virtue,  of  wliich  patriotism  was  the  centre,  was  the  spir- 
it of  religion  in  republican  Rome.  The  strength  of  the 
Roman  people  was  their  moral  sense,  the  force  and 
tenacity  with  which  they  apprehended  virtue,  heading 
up  in  the  great  virtue  of  patriotism.  Out  of  this  grew 
their  reverence  for  the  laws  by  which  the  order  of  the 
state  was  maintained. 

A  people  wdio  consciously  made  their  own  laws,  in 
accordance  with  the  constitution  of  their  most  honored 
king,  could  not  look  upon  them  as  the  gift  of  the  gods, 
or  as  in  any  sense  revealed.  They  knew  full  well  the 
struggles  whereby  many  of  their  laws  had  been  en- 
acted. [N'o  mysterious  antiquity  robed  them  with  sanc- 
tity. The  whole  process  of  making  them  was  entirely 
rational.  And  the  rational  powers  of  the  people  were 
fortified,  and  made  clearer  in  the  course  of  it.  History 
has  no  record  of  a  grander  political  education  than  that 
of  the  Romans,  from  the  adoption  of  the  constitution 
of  Servius  Tullius,  until  the  securing  of  equal  rights 
for  Patrician  and  Plebeian.  The  patience,  the  modera- 
tion, the  passionate  fervor  of  controversy,  the  respect 
for  existing  laws,  while  struggling  to  carry  new  laws, 
the  exhibition  of  all  those  qualities,  elsewhere  to  be 
found  in  only  the  wisest  statesmen,  making  the  general 
conduct  of  a  whole  people,  constitute  a  more  interest- 
ing spectacle  than  all  their  military  victories  of  later 
times.  Never  w^as  a  people  more  rationally  conscious 
of  its  aim,  or  more  rationally  persistent  in  adhering  to 


264  CO:SIPAEATIYE    RELIGION. 

it.  That  aim  was  to  secure  the  integrity  of  their  repub- 
lican constitution,  and  to  harmonize  and  complete  it  by 
equal  laws.  But  at  every  step  in  the  career  upon  which 
they  had  been  started  by  Servius  Tullius,  they  became 
more  distinctly  legal,  seK-reliant,  and  less  religious. 
Religion  became  to  them,  more  and  more,  the  mere 
sanction  of  virtue,  the  traditional  observances  of  the 
republic.  The  legal  process,  whereby  the  common- 
wealth developed  itself,  was  one  which  actually  up- 
turned some  of  the  most  solemn  religious  practices  and 
privileges,  and  went  to  put  all  things  upon  the  basis, 
not  of  faith  but  of  reason.  It  inevitably  followed  that 
religious  practices  which  contradicted  reason  lost  their 
hold  on  the  convictions  of  intelligent  men. 

The  lack  thus  created,  succeeding  generations  at- 
tempted to  supply  by  importations  from  abroad.  But 
the  adoption  of  Greek  mythology,  although  connected 
with  much  literary  culture  and  improvement  in  the 
elegance  of  worship,  could  not  take  up  the  inheritance 
of  ancient  Roman  faith  ;  and  the  gods  and  ceremonies 
introduced  from '  Asia-Minor,  from  Syria,  and  from 
Egypt,  went  greatly  to  increase  the  religious  derange- 
ment and  uncertainty. 

Thus  in  China,  in  India,  in  Persia,  and  over  the 
Persian  empire,  among  the  Jews,  in  Greece,  and  in 
Rome,  a  similar  spirit  actuated  the  minds  of  leading 
men,  in  the  sixth  century  before  Christ.  The  effect 
was,  in  some  quarters,  to  overthrow,  elsewhere,  to  under- 
mine, or  at  least,  to  weaken  the  great  idolatrous  reli- 
gions of  the  civilized  world,  with  the  sacerdotal  sys- 
tems founded  upon  them,  and  to  exalt  human  reason, 
and  the  idea  of  what  man  can  do  for  himself. 


CHAPTEE  XII. 

PROGKESS    UNDER    RATIONALISM. 

Seldom  is  a  national  relisfion  extino^iiislied  at  a 
juncture.  It  ordinarily  prolongs  its  decline  through 
centuries,  holding  tenaciously  by  the  strongest  ties  of 
human  feeling.  Even  error  may  long  survive  its 
refutation  by  argument.  For  multitudes  will  never 
hear  the  argument,  and  many  who  do  hear  it,  will 
never  understand  it :  and  there  is  in  every  natural 
religion  of  civilized  people  something,  a  sentiment,  if 
nothing  more,  which  vindicates  its  claim  to  respect, 
if  not  homage,  from  the  clearest  reason.  Nor  was  the 
rationalism,  which  preceded  the  Christian  era,  in  all 
quarters  consistently  progressive.  In  some,  it  ended 
by  going  under  the  tide  of  reactionary  superstition ; 
in  others,  its  quickening  and  exaltation  of  mind 
operated  with  extraordinary  and  brilliant  effect.  It 
was  the  making  of  Athens  and  Rome,  the  very  im- 
pulse which  started  them  on  their  respective  careers 
of  success.  In  other  quarters,  it  only  crushed  the 
spirit  of  the  people,  together  with  the  old  religion,  to 
which  they  clung.  The  populations  of  Babylonia  and 
Assyria  never  recovered  from  the  effects  of  it,  and  only 
in  one  case  did  old  idolatry  succeed  in  reaction.  It 
was  that  of  Brahmanism  in  India;  and  that  only 
after  the  lapse  of  many  centuries.  The  idolatries, 
12 


266  COMPARATIVE   RELIGION. 

which  afterwards  engrafted  themselves  upon  Confucian 
morals,  and  upon  Buddhism,  were  new  phases  of 
innovation.  Further  west,  the  rational  movement 
went  on  consistently,  slowly  crumbling  away  the  old 
systems  of  religion,  without  providing  any  substitute, 
save  philosophy.  In  that  process,  the  principal  agen- 
cies were  the  Persian,  the  Hebrew,  and  the  Greek,  lat- 
terly above  all  others,  the  Greek.  The  religions  of 
Western  Asia  and  Europe,  as  far  as  civilized,  went 
through  a  succession  of  changes  and  combination  of 
elements,  very  unfavorable  to  their  hold  upon  the  con- 
victions of  intelligent  people. 


IN    WESTERN    ASIA. 


It  was  in  the  reign  of  Darius  Hystaspis,  from  520 
until  485  b.  c,  that  the  Persian  empire  reached  its 
summit  of  power,  and  the  utmost  extent  of  its  domin- 
ion. By  him  its  boundaries  were  carried  to  the  Indus, 
on  the  east,  and  to  the  Danube,  on  the  west,  while  it 
covered  the  whole  breadth  of  country  from  the  Indian 
sea  to  the  Jaxartes,  the  Caspian,  and  the  Euxine. 

As  compared  with  that  of  other  oriental  princes, 
the  government  of  Darius  was  eminently  liberal  and 
humane.  Governors  were  set  over  all  the  twenty 
gx'eat  satrapies  of  his  kingdom,  who  were  to  enforce 
submission  to  the  general  good  order,  and  receive 
the  stipulated  revenue.  But  most  of  the  subordi- 
nate states  were  indulged  in  their  own  internal  gov- 


PROGRESS   UNDER   RATIONALISM.  267 

eminent  and  laws ;  and  in  some  cases  ancient  institu- 
tions, and  decayed  national  organizations  were  revived. 
The  Jews  were  evervwliere  favored,  and  as  many  of 
them  as  had  returned  to  their  own  land,  were  protected 
and  aided  in  the  restoration  of  their  city  and  temple. 
And  the  Tyrians  were  relieved  from  the  oppression, 
which  they  had  suffered  nnder  the  Babylonians,  and 
subject  to  the  general  government  allowed  to  have  a 
king  of  their  own.  The  Persian  dominions  presented 
more  features  of  a  regularly  constituted  and  consolida- 
ted empire  than  any  previous  conquest  of  arms  in 
Western  Asia,  while  guaranteeing  greater  freedom 
and  security  to  its  several  provinces.  The  Great  King 
was  actually,  as  he  was  called,  a  King  of  kings,  and  his 
rule  was,  more  than  any  preceding  it  in  those  coun- 
tries, one  of  civil  law. 

Nothing  occurred  to  seriously  interrupt  this  dis- 
tinguished prosperity  for  thirty  years.  The  battle  of 
Marathon,  although  a  check  upon  aggression,  did  not 
aifect  the  solidity  of  the  Persian  empire.  Ten  years 
afterwards  it  poured  forth  the  largest  and  most  mag- 
nificently equipped  army  that  the  world  had  ever 
seen,  to  overwhelm  not  only  Attica  but  European 
Greece.  And  well  for  Greece  that  he  was  not  a  Da- 
rius who  commanded  it.  Its  failure  was  the  turning 
point  of  Persian  fortune.  From  the  day  of  Platsea 
and  Mycale,  the  empire  began  to  decline  ;  but  yet  held 
together  firmly,  the  greatest  dominion  in  the  world, 
for  a  hundred  and  fifty  years. 

Persians  did  not,  all  that  time,  retain  their  religion 
uncorrupted.  by    the  practices   of    the  people   over 


268-  COMPARATIVE   RELIGION. 

whom  they  ruled.  Some  of  the  angelic  beings 
of  their  own  belief  were,  in  course  of  time,  elevated 
to  the  place  of  gods,  after  the  example  of  those 
of  Assyria.  That  process  was  promoted  by  the  success 
of  the  Magi  in  gradually  reviving  the  popularity  of 
their  sacerdotal  ritualism,  which,  if  not  idolatrous, 
accustomed  the  eyes  of  the  people  to  many  forms  of 
worship  practiced  by  idolators.  As  early  as  the  time 
of  Herodotus,  the  Magian  religion,  in  the  western 
part  of  the  empire,  prevailed  over  the  pure  Avestan. 
And  ere  long  its  ceremonies  were  assimilated  to  those 
of  polytheists.  The  Assyrian  symbol  of  Deity,  the 
winged  circle,  or  wheel  in  the  heavens,  was  accepted 
lis  the  sign  of  Aura-mazda  ;  to  whose  service  the  human- 
headed  bulls,  and  other  Assyrian  sacred  figures,  were 
converted  ;  while  the  bull  and  lion,  and  monsters  of 
various  descriptions,  were  used  to  represent  the  Avestan 
powers  of  evil.  All  this  favored  that  blending  which 
took  place  between  Magism  and  Avestanism,  and 
justified  Plato  in  speaking  of  the  Magism  of  Zoroaster 
(the  prophet)  of  Oromazes. 

In  the  reign  of  Artaxerxes  Mnemon  (405-362 
B.  c),  Mithra,  the  Avestan  storm-spirit,  had  become  a 
god,  with  special  ofiices  set  apart  for  his  worship.  Gods 
of  the  old  mythologies  were  also  retained,  or  revived. 
The  Babylonian  Nana,  identified  by  the  Greeks  with 
more  than  one  of  their  goddesses,  but  most  properly 
with  Aphrodite,  obtained  favor  for  her  worship,  at 
first  covertly,  but  finally  with  open  acknowledgment, 
her  images  being  set  up  in  the  principal  cities  of  the 
empire.     Other  foreign  gods  were  allowed,  and  other 


PROGRESS    UNDER    RATIONALISM.  269 

Avestan  spirits  elevated  to  divine  honors.  But  this 
seems  to  Lave  been  more  the  work  of  the  idolatrous 
populations  than  of  the  true  Persian  people,  an  adop- 
tion, after  their  fashion,  of  some  elements  of  the  reli- 
gion of  their  masters.  For  although  some  of  the  later 
monarchs  became  converts  to  idolatr}^,  there  was  among 
the  Persic  people  a  part,  perhaps  the  greater  part,  who 
remained  faithful  to  the  creed  of  their  fathers ;  and 
the  supremacy  of  Aura-mazda  was  never  forgotten, 
nor  the  danger  to  the  soul  to  be  feared  from  the  vio- 
lence or  seductions  of  Anra-mainyus.*  But  the  syn- 
cretism, which  these  combinations  effected,  increased 
the  derangement  of  religion,  its  distracted  and  revolu- 
tionary condition  in  Western  Asia. 

That  state  of  disorganization  was  still  further  de- 
ranged by  the  conquests  of  Alexander  the  Great.  For 
the  revolutionary  and  desolating  campaigns  of  that 
hero  went  still  more  to  break  down  the  ritual  systems 
which  grow  up  and  prosper  in  times  of  peace.  His 
plan  of  blending  in  one  people  his  European  and  Asia- 
tic subjects,  as  far  as  it  ever  took  effect,  the  dissensions 
of  his  successors,  and  division  of  his  conquests  among 
them,  their  long  continued  wars,  and  the  Greek  settle- 
ments made  in  various  quarters,  from  Egypt  to  Bac- 
tria,  settlements  which  overshadowed  the  original  popu- 
lations, all  operated  to  the  same  end  of  disorganizing 
society  and  religion.  Under  the  Seleucidse,  religion 
was  allowed  to  take  its  own  course.  The  Greeks 
never  were  propagandists.  Although  they  continued 
in  some  degree  to  observe  their  own  rites  in  their  new 
*  Rawlinson,  Five  Great  Monarcliies.  Fifth  monarclij  Chap.  VI. 


270  COMPARATIVE    KELTGION. 

homes,  it  was  generally  with  greater  or  less  modifica- 
tion or  addition  from  those  of  their  new  neighbors, 
who  also  adopted  something  from  them.  One  imme- 
diate effect  was  to  remove  from  the  place  of  honor  the 
Avestan  religion,  to  confine  it  once  more  to  those  who 
believed  in  it,  while  the  Greek  ceremonial  was  not  set 
up  in  its  place,  and  no  revolntion  was  interested  in 
restoring  the  religious  establishments  of  the  nations 
whom  Persia  had  overthrown. 

At  the  end  of  less  than  a  hundred  years  after  the 
death  of  Alexander,  the  insurrection  of  the  Parthians 
began,  which,  in  no  very  long  time,  expelled  the  Syro- 
Greek  rule  from  the  further  east ;  and  before  b.  c.  136, 
supplanted  it  entirely,  from  the  Hindu  Cush  to  the 
Euphrates,  and  the  western  borders  of  Armenia. 

In  religion  the  Parthians  observed  some  elements 
of  Avestanism,  and  some  of  an  apparently  indigenous 
idolatry.  The  dualism  of  the  former,  its  reverence  of 
Aura-raazda,  and  dread  of  Ahriman,  they  combined 
with  a  species  of  nature  worship,  in  which  the  sun  and 
moon  were  the  chief  objects  of  adoration,  the  former 
of  whom  was  worshipped  in  temples  as  Mithra.  They 
had  also  family  rites,  and  ancestral  images,  which  had 
a  place  sacred  to  them  in  each  house.  Most  of  the 
peculiar  rites  and  tenets  of  the  Magian  religion  were 
professed  and  followed  by  the  Parthians.  The  Magi 
were  in  high  repute  among  them,  and  foi'med  a 
large  portion  of  the  national  council,  which  elected, 
and,  if  need  were,  deposed  the  kings.  But  in  course 
of  time  much  laxity  was  introduced.  In  some  quarters 
the  sacred  fire  of  Aura-mazda  was  suffered  to  go  out. 


PROGRESS  UNDER  RATIONALISM.        271 

And  respect  for  '^  fire  so  entirely  passed  away,  that 
we  hear  of  the  later  Parthians  burning  their  dead. 
And  the  Magi,  if  not  expelled  from  their  place  in  the 
council,  at  any  rate  found  themselves  despised,  and 
deprived  of  influence.  The  later  Parthian  religion 
can  have  been  little  more  than  a  worship  of  the  Sun 
and  Moon,  and  of  the  Teraphim^  or  sacred  images, 
which  were  the  most  precious  possessions  of  each 
household.- '  ^ 

While  thus  lax  and  changeful  in  their  own  religious 
practice,  the  Parthians  were  naturally  tolerant  of  a  vari- 
ety of  creeds  among  their  subjects.  Fire  altars  were 
maiotained  by  Avestan  zeal,  which  was  allowed  in  the 
dependent  kingdom  of  Persia.  But  it  remained  in 
obscurity,  until  the  rise  of  the  Sassanide  dynasty,  and 
overthrow  of  the  Parthians,  in  the  third  century  (226) 
of  the  Christian  era. 

Established  once  more  as  the  national  faith,  over 
that  great  country  between  the  Indus  and  the  Tigris, 
Avestanism  held  its  own  between  Christianity  on  one 
side,  and  Buddhism  on  the  other,  as  well  as  in  oppo- 
sition to  the  idolatries,  which  had  been  tolerated  under 
the  religious  laxity  of  the  Parthians,  until  all  were 
inero^ed  in  one  common  dissolution  bv  the  Mohammedan 
conquest  (651  A.  d).  Within  that  period  the  ancient 
faith  of  Zarathustra  enjoyed  its  latest  prosperity.  The 
much  venerated,  but  not  canonical,  Bundehesh  pre- 
sents it  in  its  final  development. 

In  Syria,  irregular  hereditary  practice  kept  idolatry 
and  polytheism  alive,  under  one  form  and  another, 
*  Rawlinson,  Sixth.  Oriental  Monarchy,  p.  400. 


272  COMPARATIVE   KELIGION. 

except  where  unbelief  presumed  to  disregard  them,  or 
converts  to  Judaism  worshipped  the  God  of  Abraham. 
Greek  influence  sustained  that  disjointed  idolatry,  and 
some  of  the  Syro-Greek  kings  introduced  Greek  myth- 
ology and  worship.  Konians  also  allowed  and  pro- 
tected whatever  religions  their  subjects  practiced,  if 
they  had  any  national  sanction.  But  neither  the  j^rac- 
tice  of  priests,  the  compliance  of  the  masses,  nor  the 
patronage  of  foreign  rulers  could  restore  the  old  myth- 
ologies of  Syria  and  Phenicia  to  their  former  place  of 
power  and  venerability.  For  learning  and  intelligence 
had  withdrawn  their  confidence. 

In  that  tendency  of  the  public  mind  skepticism 
could  not  be  confined,  in  its  questions,  to  the  doctrine 
of  many  gods  ;  it  not  unfrequently  extended  them  to 
that  of  any  god ;  and  some  persons  went  the  length 
of  withholding  credence  from  everything  which  did 
not  address  the  senses. 


II. 

THE  JEWS  AFTER  THE  CAPTIVITY. 

The  subjects  of  the  first  captivity  of  Israel  had 
been  carried  into  Northern  Assyria ;  those  of  the  sec- 
ond, into  Halah,  and  elsewhere  by  the  river  Gozan, 
and  in  the  cities  of  the  Medes  ;  those  of  the  third,  to 
the  banks  of  the  river  Chebar,  and  those  of  the  fourth 
to  Babylon.  In  the  former  two,  ISTineveh  was  the  con- 
queror ;  in  the  latter  two,  the  Babylonians  under  Nebu- 
chadnezzar.      And    the  interval    between    the   first 


II. THE    JEWS    AFTER    THE    CAPTIVITY.  273 

and  the  last  was  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  years. 
Israel  was  the  victim  of  Assyria,  aiid  Judah,  of  Baby- 
lon ;  and  the  liberator  was  Persia.  It  is  the  captivity 
of  Judah  which  is  called  the  Babylonish,  and  its  dura- 
tion is  counted  from  the  first  conquest  by  Nebuchad- 
nezzar, in  the  fourth  year  of  Jehoiakim,  (606  b.  c.,) 
until  the  decree  of  Cyrus,  permitting  their  return,  in 
536  B.  c. 

During  their  exile,  the  Jews  maintained  their  tribal 
organization,  and  the  practice  of  their  religion,  as  far 
as  it  was  not  inseparable  from  the  temple.  In  all 
places  where  they  resided,  they  "  erected  synagogues, 
where  their  scriptures  were  read  and  expounded,  and 
free  access  to  the  services  was  granted  to  the  heathen." 
A  knowdedge  of  the  doctrines  and  expectations  of 
Israel  thereby  received  extensive  publication.  Proph- 
ets also  arose  among  them,  whose  teaching  sustained 
the  spirit  of  the  people  with  hope.  By  that  means, 
and  by  the  example  of  other  holy  men,  together  with 
the  wholesome  lesson  of  adversity,  and  perhaps  to  a 
greater  extent  than  we  can  define,  the  encouragement 
and  example  of  the  Persian  people,  and  patronage  of 
Persian  princes,  they  were  not  only  restrained  from 
joining  in  heathen  idolatry,  but  more  effectually 
weaned  from  all  leaning  to  it  than  they  had  ever  been 
before,  even  in  the  days  of  purest  prosperity. 

In  Babylonia,  the  Jews  were  not  held  in  afflictive 
bondage,  but  permitted  to  follow  what  occupations  they 
chose.  Some  were  elevated  to  places  of  rank  and  trust. 
And  many  of  them  prospered  so  well  that  they  ceased 
to  regret  their  native  country.     In  course  of  time  a  new 


274:  COMPARATIVE    RELIGION. 

generation  arose,  among  whom  many  regarded  the 
place  of  their  own  birth  with  more  love  than  that  of 
their  fathers.  Others,  actuated  by  nobler  motives, 
longed  for  the  restoration  of  their  city  and  temple, 
and  the  unmutilated  service  of  their  heavenly  King. 

At  the  end  of  fifty  years  from  the  destruction  of 
Jerusalem,  and  of  seventy  from  the  first  Babylonish 
captivity,  the  kingdom  of  Babylon  being  overthrown 
by  the  Medes  and  Persians,  and  the  Princes  of  the 
allied  powers  taking  their  place  successively  upon  the 
throne,  when  it  came  to  the  turn  of  Cyrus,  he  distin- 
guished the  first  year  of  his  reign  by  issuing  the  edict 
permitting  the  Jews  to  return  to  Judea  and  rebuild 
their  city  and  temple.  He  accompanied  it  by  an  order 
that  all  their  sacred  vessels  sliould  be  restored,  and  that 
the  ofiicers  of  his  government  should  furnish  them  with 
all  the  necessary  facilities ;  and  his  subjects,  where 
Jews  were  resident,  were  recommended  to  aid  them 
with  gifts.  The  privilege  was  also  granted  of  obtain- 
ing timber  from  Lebanon,  for  the  temple.  With  all 
this  Cyrus  believed  himself  to  be  charged  by  the  God 
wliom  he  adored,  and  whom  he  understood  to  be  also 
the  God  of  those  exiles. 

Only  fifty  thousand  availed  themselves  of  the  decree 
of  Cyrus.  They  were  led  by  Zerubabel,  grandson  of 
Jehoiakim,  the  last  king  of  Judah  ;  and  arrived  on  the 
site  of  their  ancient  capital  just  seventy  years  after  its 
first  humiliation  under  Nebuchadnezzar,  and  in  the 
latter  part  of  the  year  536   b.  c. 

'No  Hebrews  from  the  other  captivities  seem  to 
have  taken  any  part  in  this  revival ;  and  the  Samari- 


II. THE   JEWS    AFTER   THE    CAPTIVITY.  275 

tans,  who  desired  to  join  it,  were  rejected  on  the 
ground  of  not  being  pure  Hebrews  in  either  birth  or 
religion.  Upon  the  death  of  Cyrus,  the  offended  Sa- 
maritans succeeded  in  persuading  Carabyses,  and  the 
false  Smerdis,  that  the  rebuilding  of  the  city  and 
temple  of  Jerusalem  would  be  detrimental  to  the  inter- 
ests of  the  Persian  crown  :  and  the  work  was  accord- 
ingly stayed  during  the  reigns  of  those  two  kings.  In 
the  second  year  of  Darius  Ilystaspis,  a  new  application 
was  made  by  the  Samaritans.  But  that  more  enlight- 
ened and  large-minded  prince  renewed  the  favor  of 
Cyrus  to  the  Jews,  and  otherwise  befriended  them ; 
and  under  the  exhortations  of  the  prophets  Haggai 
and  Zechariah,  the  work  on  the  temple  was  completed 
in  the  sixth  year  of  Darius.  In  this  second  temple 
the  most  holy  place  was  entirely  empty,  the  ark  of 
the  covenant  having  been  lost,"^ 

The  events  of  the  book  of  Esther  fell  within  the 
next  reign,  namely,  that  of  Xerxes ;  and  concerned 
chiefly  the  Hebrew  people  who  remained  in  captivity. 

In  the  reign  of  Artaxerxes  Longimanus,  about 
458  B.  c,  a  second  company  of  returning  captives  was 
conducted  to  Jerusalem  by  Ezra,  a  learned  scribe,  wdth 
full  authority  from  the  king.  By  Ezra,  more  than  by 
any  other,  was  the  knowledge  of  their  holy  scriptures 
revived.  In  the  exceedingly  liberal  decree  of  Arta- 
xerxes, issued  in  favor  of  Ezra  and  his  people,  the 
"  God  of  heaven,"  that  is  God  in  the  language  of  the 
Avestan  scriptures,  is  repeatedly  identified  with  the 
God  of  Israel,  the  God  in  whose  worship  Ezra  was  a 
*  Jalin,  Archeology,  §  333-339. 


276  COMPARATIVE    RELIGION. 

scribe.  The  great  king,  plainly  from  that  document, 
felt  that  in  doing  what  he  did  for  the  service  of  the 
God  whose  temple  was  at  Jerusalem,  lie  was  worship- 
ping the  god  of  his  own  people,  and  of  their  holy 
scriptures.  It  seems  to  me  that  the  decrees  of  Cyrus, 
of  Darius,  and  of  Artaxerxes,  as  compared  with  the 
language  of  the  Avesta  and  of  the  Behistun  inscription 
touching  God,  put  the  fact  that  those  princes  identified 
the  God  of  their  fathers  with  the  God  of  the  Israelites 
beyond  all  doubt  or  reasonable  dispute. 

Thirteen  years  later,  l^ehemiah,  cup-bearer  of  the 
same  king,  hearing  of  the  unprosperous  condition  of 
the  colonists  at  Jerusalem,  obtained  permission,  and 
was  invested  with  the  proper  authority  to  proceed 
thither  and  strengthen  the  hands  of  his  people. 
Under  his  direction,  the  rebuilding  of  the  city  walls, 
interrupted  by  Samaritan  hostility,  was  carried  forward 
to  completion.  Nehemiah  then  distributed  nine-tenths 
of  the  people  in  other  cities  of  Judea,  to  effect  a  similar 
restoration  of  them.  And  having  by  these,  and  vari- 
ous other  measures,  strengthened  and  encouraged  his 
people,  and  made  them  really  once  more  a  nation,  he 
returned,  at  the  end  of  twelve  years,  to  Babylon, 
where  he  resided  until,  in  the  reign  of  Darius  IN^othus, 
he  was  made  governor  of  Judea  a  second  time. 

In  that  work  of  restoration,  Ezra  addressed  himself 
chiefly  to  the  interests  of  religion,  and  Nehemiah  to 
those  of  civil  government. 

During  the  same  period,  the  last  of  the  Hebrew 
prophets  appeared.  Haggai  and  Zechariah  flourished  in 
the  earlier  yeai's  of  Darius  Hystaspis,  and  Malachi  was 


II. THE    JEWS    AFTER   THE   CAPTIVITY.  277 

contemporary  with  Neliemiah.  With  the  close  of  his 
prophecy  the  series  of  Hebrew  scriptures  came  to  an 
end.  His  prophecy  was  written  most  probably  in  the 
reign  of  Darius  ]N"othns,  about  420  b.  c. 

Completely  cured  of  idolatry  and  of  polytheism, 
to  which  they  never  afterwards  recurred,  the  Jews  of 
Judea  subsequently  took  the  opposite  extreme  of  De- 
ism, with  or  without  a  high  ritualistic  idea  of  worship  ; 
although  there  never  were  lacking  among  them  some 
who  rightly  understood  and  consistently  observed  their 
national  religion,  in  its  historical  and  prophetical  bear- 
ing ;  and  who,  in  it  and  through  it,  looked  for  the  con- 
solation of  Israel. 

During  the  suppression  of  the  regal  and  sacerdotal 
offices  in  the  captivity,  the  prophets  maintained  the 
cause  of  their  religion.  Afterwards,  when  the  priest- 
hood was  reinstated  in  the  regular  services,  the  pro- 
phetic office  came  to  an  end  ;  and  the  nation  being 
subject  to  the  king  of  Persia,  the  high  priest  became 
the  highest  officer  of  government  among  the  Jews. 

Particular  attention  was  now  given  to  preservation 
of  the  books  of  scripture.  The  restoration  of  the  Jews 
was  to  the  Hebrew  sacred  books,  as  the  schools  of 
Alexandria  to  the  classics  of  Greece.  Ezra  was  the 
Aristarchus  of  his  people.  Different  schools  of  Jewish 
Rabbis  continued  the  work  of  copying,  interpreting, 
and  commenting  upon  the  scriptures, — a  work  which 
has  not  been  suspended  to  the  present  hour.  These 
two  thousand  years  a  connected  line  of  commentators 
has  waited  upon  those  sacred  books.  In  the  tliird 
century  before  Christ,  they  were  translated  into  Greek, 


278  COMPARATIVE    RELIGION. 

wliich  had  then  become  the  principal  language  of  lit- 
erature and  business  for  the  western  world.  And 
every  language  w^liich  has  succeeded  it  in  that  distinc- 
tion, has  also  been  intrusted  w4th  a  translation  of  those 
scriptures. 

Upon  the  approach  of  Alexander  the  Great  to 
Jerusalem,  it  is  related  that  the  High  Priest,  attended 
by  other  authorities  of  the  city,  went  out  to  meet  him. 
The  conqueror  received  them  with  distinguished  favor. 
And  from  that  da}^  the  Persian  dominion  was  there 
supplanted  by  the  Greek.  After  the  death  of  Alexan- 
der, 323  B.  c,  Judea  was  added  by  Ptolemy  Lagus  to 
his  kingdom  of  Egypt,  in  which  connection  it  con- 
tinued in  the  free  exercise  of  rehgion,  until  in  203  b.  c. 
it  was  transferred  to  tlie  rule  of  the  Greek  kings  of 
Syria.  In  169  b.  c.  the  attempt  of  Antiochus  Epi- 
phanes  to  force  upon  the  Jews  the  religion  of  Greece 
gave  occasion  to  the  heroic  resistance  of  the  Maccabees. 
The  successors  of  those  patriotic  priests  became  from 
141  B.  c.  the  independent  high-priest  kings  of  Judea. 
They  ceased  to  be  indej^endent  when,  in  63  b.  c,  they 
submitted  to  Roman  arbitration.  But  their  heirs  held 
the  throne,  as  separate  from  the  priesthood,  until  the 
death  of  the  first  Herod. 


SUMMARY. 


In  that  great  cycle  of  the  world's  history,  which 
terminated  in  the  fall  of  the  Persian  empire,  the  vari- 
ous types  of  civilization  determined  for  man  by  his 
earthly  dwelling  place,  presented  their  earliest  exam- 


SUMMARY.  279 

pies.  The  best  that  ever  flourished  on  the  dry  lands 
was  illustrated  in  tlie  early  Iranian  tribes,  in  the  He- 
brew patriarchs,  and  their  nomadic  descendants ; 
Egypt  and  Assyria  carried  out  consistently  the  order 
of  agricultural  society,  and  Sidon  with  her  colonies, 
the  more  varied  culture  of  commerce ;  while  inferior 
degrees  of  all  were  to  be  found  among  tlie  table  lands, 
the  valleys  and  sea-coasts  of  that  diversified,  yet  har- 
monious country,  over  which  Persian  rule  had  ex- 
tended. 

Within  its  limits  also  had  each  of  the  great  histori- 
cal branches  of  mankind  played  an  important  part. 
It  opened  in  the  enterprise  and  supremacy  of  the  sons 
of  Ham,  and  for  more  than  fifteen  hundred  years 
remained  under  their  control;  when  sinking  into  cor- 
ruption, religious  and  moral,  it  received  a  new  impulse 
and  higher  purpose  from  the  great  increase  of  the 
Shemites,  and  from  the  religious  reformation  efi'ected 
by  their  means ;  and  all  the  nations  belonging  to  it 
were,  for  the  first  time,  united  under  one  ruler,  and 
saw  their  final  decline  under  the  earliest  empire  of  the 
Japhetic  race. 

The  special  importance  to  be  attached  to  the  history 
of  this  area  is  that  within  it  have  occurred  those 
changes,  which  successively  have  gone  to  build  up  the 
progressive  civilization  of  the  world.  India  and  China 
have  also  been  the  scenes  of  great  empires,  and  have 
enjoyed  their  respective  progress  in  power  and  culture. 
But  their  dominion  has  always  been  confined  to  less  va- 
riety of  ethnic  character,  less  diversity  of  lands,  and  few- 
er elements  of  culture ;  nor  have  they  ever  evinced  the 


280  COMPARATIYE   KELIGIOJ^". 

same  degree  of  outgoing  enterprise.  Their  respective 
civilizations  have  exhibited  progress  ;  but  limited,  and 
in  course  of  time  returning  upon  itself  to  pursue  the 
same  round  again.  In  both  cases  the  effect  has  been, 
upon  the  whole,  not  so  much  advance  as  revolution. 
In  the  area  west  of  the  Indus,  the  endless  variety  of 
elements  and  their  combinations,  and  the  successive 
changes  in  the  nature  of  those  combinations  bringing 
up  as  leading  influences,  one  after  another,  new 
branches  of  mankind,  and  variously  combining  them, 
have  resulted  in  several  long  and  important  periods  of 
real  advance,  during  which  the  superiority  of  the  rul- 
ing people  within  it — superiority  to  all  the  rest  of  the 
world — has  been  evinced  in  such  a  way  as  to  make 
denial  of  it  irrational.  One  of  those  periods,  including 
both  advance  and  decline,  w^as  that  which  ended  with 
the  Persian  empire.  Its  leaders,  in  their  respective  cy- 
cles, had  been  Egypt,  Ethiopia,  ancient  Babylonia  and 
Sidon,  giving  shape  and  general  bearing  to  it  from 
beginning  to  end.  They  found  rivals,  reformers,  cor- 
rectives, who  also  in  some  quarters  displaced  them,  in 
the  Hebrews,  later  Assyrians  and  Chaldees,  but  re- 
mained substantially  the  same.  And  when  they  all 
alike  had  lost  their  force  and  w^ere  falling  to  pieces, 
the  iron  bands  of  Medo-Persian  dominion  were  thrown 
around  them,  and  prepared  them  to  be  handed  over 
to  the  true  heir  of  their  position  in  the  world.  The 
Persians  contracted  only  the  gloss  of  the  ancient  re- 
finement, which  perished  in  their  grasp.  In  them  the 
race  of  Japhet  commenced  its  career  of  mastery,  but 
elsewhere  was  it  destined    to  unfold  a  culture  proper 


SUMMARY.  281 

to  itself.  To  ancient  oriental  civilization  the  Persians 
stood  as  the  Romans  to  that  of  Hellenic  growth. 
They  gave  one  master,  and  a  firm  legislation  to  its 
whole  domain.  And  as  the  decay  of  the  Eoman  em- 
pire was  to  the  Hellenic,  so  was  that  of  the  Persian  to 
the  Oriental.  But  the  final  blow  was  given  by  the 
campaigns  of  Alexander.  Though  tlie  head  of  a  great 
civilized  power,  and  destined  to  diffuse  the  civiliza- 
tion of  which  he  was  the  champion,  he  came  upon  the 
last  days  of  Orientalism  as  the  Goth  upon  declining 
Eome.  Hellenism  never  took  root  in  the  east,  though 
it  converted  to  its  owm  use  much  of  the  fruit  produced 
there. 

The  historical  unity  of  the  ancient  Orient  stands 
out  the  more  distinctly  that  its  prosperity  did  not  sur- 
vive to  mingle  with  that  of  its  successor,  and  has  never 
been  restored.  All  that  the  Greek  accepted  from  it 
became  Greek.  Then  fell  the  dark  ages  of  the  Oriental 
world — dark  ages  which  have  seen  no  returning  dawn  ; 
the  learning  w^hich  preceded  them  has  enjoyed  no 
revival.  Under  the  rule  successively  of  Greek  and 
Homan,  the  arts  of  refinement  met  with  liberal  patron- 
age ;  but  neither  Greek  nor  Roman  could  revive  Orien- 
talism. By  the  introduction  of  new  elements,  with 
the  prostration  of  native  independence,  an  exotic  style 
of  life,  of  manners  and  pursuits  was  created,  which, 
extruding  the  old,  never  took  its  place  in  the  heart  of 
the  people,  and  only  led  the  way  down  to  barbarism. 
Greek  culture  and  fashions  prevailed,  and  the  language 
of  the  Greek  became  the  chief  medium  of  litera- 
ture and  business,  and  those  of  the  native  inhabitants 


282  COMPARATIVE   EELIGION. 

passed  away,  or  changed,  into  dialects  which  literature 
did  not  recognize.  Later  Saracenic  culture  was  brief 
and  partial,  only  enough  to  dazzle  in  the  midst  of  the 
darkness. 

The  world  had  seen  another  of  the  grand  cycles 
of  its  history — a  round  of  civilization,  brought  to  a 
close — one  of  the  mighty  days  of  God  concluded. 
And  now  Ihat  its  work  was  done,  what  in  brief,  was 
the  sum  of  all  that  could  descend  to  posterity  ?  Les- 
sons of  warning  and  example,  primary  elements  in 
every  department  of  life,  and  the  great  fundamental 
truths  of  man's  relations  to  God,  together  with  some 
similarly  fundamental  errors,  from  which  even  the 
best  of  the  world  have  not  yet  obtained  entire  emanci- 
pation. From  its  original  germ  in  the  structure  of  the 
family,  absolute  monarchy  grew  up  by  such  natural 
progress  that  it  was  regarded  with  the  reverence  due 
to  the  order  of  nature.  The  world  so  far  had  recog- 
nized no  other  form  of  government.  A  king  in  hered- 
itary descent  was  held  to  be  a  son  of  God,  and  to  rule 
by  divine  right.  Resistance  to  his  will,  on  the  part 
of  a  subject,  was  impiety  incurring  the  vengeance 
of  heaven. 

The  first  recorded  efibrt  to  remove  that  error  and 
raise  a  people  from  that  state  of  servility,  belonged  to 
the  history  of  Israel,  and,  owing  to  the  universally  pre- 
vailing feelings  and  prejudices,  was  only  partially 
successful.  The  impression  that  the  rightful  king 
was  the  lineal  descendant  of  the  deified  national  patri- 
arch, and,  as  such,' a  son  of  God,  held  a  control  over 
the  populace  in  those  days  so  powerful  that  nothing 


SUMMARY.  283 

save  a  higher  religious  position  could  overcome  it. 
That  higher  religious  position  was  taken  bj  the  Mo- 
saic constitution.  'No  man  was  to  be  king  in  Israel ; 
and  the  people  were  constituted  a  nation  of  brethren. 
But  the  God  of  Heaven  and  Earth,  the  eternal  and 
invisible,  was  to  be  their  king.  Thus  despotism,  with 
its  evils,  was  to  be  removed  from  among  men;  the 
sense  of  necessity  for  a  king  satisfied  by  being  ad- 
dressed to  Him  whose  right  it  is  to  reign,  and  the 
servile  element  supplanted  by  the  worship  of  Him  to 
whom  alone  worship  is  due,  and  whom  to  worship 
truly  lifts  the  created  being  to  its  proper  sphere.  The 
conception  was  at  once  true,  sublime,  and  elevating 
in  its  effects  upon  all  who  accepted  ,it,  and  the  only 
practical  way  of  instituting  a  free  national  govern- 
ment in  that  day.  The  Hebrews-  were  taught  the  near- 
ness of  man  to  God,  the  native  equality  of  men,  and 
the  principles  of  self-government  subordinate  to  God 
and  his  laws  alone.  But  they  ill  understood  the  glori- 
ous distinction  of  that  constitution  ;  and  soon  began  to 
look  upon  it  as  an  awkward  singularity ;  and  finally 
insisted  upon  having  a  king,  like  other  people.  The 
seeds  of  national  freedom  did  not  bear  frait  in  the 
period  of  Oriental  superiority.  Hitualism  and  sacer- 
dotalism and  superstition  carried  despotic  government 
on  their  shoulders  ;  as  their  causes  were  implicated 
and  almost  identified.  E'ot  until  the  rise  of  the  great 
rational  revolution  in  the  religious  world,  was  the 
attempt  revived  to  remove  despotism  from  the  govern- 
ment of  the  state.  But  then  it  was  made  by  separat- 
ing the  civil  as  far  as  necessary  from  religious  office. 


28i  COMPAEATITE    IIELIGION-. 

In  both  the  Athenian  and  Eoman  Eepnblics,  while 
the  name  of  king  was  abolished  for  the  state,  it  was 
retained  for  religion. 

In  some  respects,  that  servility  towards  rulers, 
implicated  with  religion,  served  to  produce  efiects 
which  were  not  altogetlier  evil.  Upon  the  virgin  soil 
of  the  finest  countries  in  the  world,  those  primitive 
nations,  submissive  to  the  will  and  enterprise  of  their 
rulers,  labored  systematically,  and  cooperatively  with 
the  order  almost  of  an  army.  Material  results  were 
produced,  and  structures  were  erected  of  a  magnifi- 
cence which  could  not  otherwise  have  been  attained ; 
and  achievements  were  made  in  reducing  nature  and 
organizing  industry  and  society,  which,  no  doubt, 
could  have  been  better  made,  if  men  had  been  better 
and  wiser ;  but  being  as  they  were,  would  never  have 
been  made  without  an  absolute  ruler. 

Many  successive  improvements  have  added  to  the 
comfort  and  elevation  of  society,  in  later  times,  but 
all  constructed  upon  the  basis  erected  then.  It  was  a 
period  of  great  beginnings,  in  discovery  and  inven- 
tions, in  arts  and  science  and  social  culture ;  yet  every- 
where its  works  present  marks  of  a  progress  pre- 
maturely arrested.  Superstition  or  sacerdotal  purpose 
early  interposed  with  religious  conventional  limits. 
As  in  some  places,  at  the  present  time,  the  ugly  old 
pictures  of  the  middle  ages  are  holy,  the  recent  and 
better  painted  are  unholy ;  so,  in  ancient  Egypt,  the 
old  stiff  outlines  held  their  place  against  all  improve- 
ment, by  sacred  prescriptive  right.  The  sculptures 
of  Nineveh  are  of  a  different  style,  but  equally  conven- 


SUMMABY.  285 

tional  and  limited.  Earlier  religion  being  an  imme- 
diate communion  of  man  with  God,  cultivated,  under 
God,  self-reliance,  enterprise,  and  progress ;  bat  when 
religion  became  ceremonial  and  ritual,  and  dependent 
upon  the  intercession  of  a  priesthood,  with  a  king  at 
its  head,  all  things  were  determined  by  prescribed 
limits.  Religion,  as  it  became  more  ritual,  put  a 
limitation  upon  progress,  and  finally  forbade  it. 
When  all  the  works  and  processes  of  art  and  industry 
were  consecrated,  it  became  impious  to  change  them. 
It  was  left  for  the  unshackled  genius  of  the  Greek, 
inheriting  those  lessons,  to  improve  upon  them,  with- 
out such  restraints  of  religion,  and  to  carry  execution 
to  ideal  perfection. 

Letters,  the  greatest  of  all  the  arts,  and  the  most 
benign,  were  an  invention  of  very  early  date,  and 
received  a  more  prolonged  culture  and  a  higher  finish. 
Nothing  can  be  more  complete  of  its  kind  than  a 
Hebrew  Psalm.  And  yet  the  perfection  of  form  in 
the  great  branches  of  the  literary  art  was  not  attained 
by  the  ancient  oriental  world. 

Above  all,  the  vital  part  of  the  legacy,  that  which 
is  limited  to  no  cycle,  but  pursues  its  onw^ard  course 
from  one  to  another,  had  already  gone  forth  upon  its 
mission  into  many  lands,  and  by  many  ways,  while, 
in  its  own  proper  forms,  it  continued  its  history  among 
a  remnant  of  the  theocratic  people,  until  its  symbols 
should  receive  their  spiritual  fulfilment.  That  has 
lost  no  part  of  its  value  to  the  present  day.  As  a 
later  antiquity  left  its  bequest  of  classical  literature 
and  art,  so  the  ancient  oriental  w^orld  handed  down  to 


286  co:mpaeative  religion. 

succeeding  time  the  inheritance  of  religion,  in  the 
niidst  of  which  as  the  sj^irit  of  the  only  progress  which 
is  onward,  and  not  cyclic,  there  is  an  exalted,  and 
ennobling  religion,  which  has  been  found  able  to  co- 
exist with  the  most  refined  culture,  and  is  of  a  nature 
to  promote  it,  and  to  lift  the  barbarous  from  their 
degradation. 

The  purely  oriental  period  closed  with  the  Persian 
conquest,  in  the  sixth  century  before  Christ ;  but 
European  superiorit}"  did  not  take  its  place  until  the 
victories  of  Alexander  of  Macedon,  in  the  fourth.  Of 
the  two,  the  more  monjentous  crisis  in  the  history  of 
religion  is  the  former,  inasmuch  as  it  coincides  with 
movements  of  similar  effect  upon  religious  opinion 
elsewhere,  constituting  the  most  extensive  uprising 
of  human  reason  against  superstition  and  sacerdotalism 
that  the  world  ever  saw.  The  Macedonian  empire 
coincided  with  its  spirit,  in  some  important  respects; 
but  retarded  its  progress,  w^hile  rendering  a  complete 
reaction  against  it  impossible. 

The  later  Chinese  classics,  the  four  books  called 
Shoo,  were  written  by  successors  of  Confucius.  Tliey 
treat  of  topics  of  moral  and  political  philosophy  in  a 
practical  way,  without  anj^  claim  to  inspiration.  Con- 
fucianism suffered  persecution  in  the  reign  of  the  Tsin 
dynasty,  in  the  latter  part  of  the  third  century,  b.  c, 
but  was  revived,  w^th  some  loss  of  its  scriptures  in  the 
second.  About  the  middle  of  the  first  century  b.  c. 
the  religion  of  China  was  further  divided,  and  the  faith 
of  her  people  shaken  by  the  introduction  of  Buddhism. 
Study  was  still  applied  to  the  ancient  classics ;.  and  the 


SUMMARY.  287 

elevated  piety  of  the  ancient  sages  was  therefore  not 
entirely  forgotten.  But  in  that  Confucius  Buddha  and 
Lau-tze  thenceforward  divided  the  religious  veneration 
of  the  people  the  evidence  is  complete  that  the  true 
theistic  faith  of  their  forefathers  had  departed. 

Aryan  mythology  and  worship,  which  had  devel- 
oped into  Brahmanism,  in  one  direction,  and  into  the 
systems  of  Greece  and  Italy,  in  the  other,  were,  during 
the  same  period,  in  a  state  of  suppression  or  decay. 
Over  the  most  of  India,  Brahmanism  was  giving  way 
before  the  followers  of  Buddha,  who  by  the  third  cen- 
tury B.  c,  had  completely  established  their  authority 
over  northern  India.  And  the  spread  of  Buddhism 
continued  with  great  activity  and  success  until  long 
after  the  Christian  epoch.  During  all  that  time  the 
Brahmanical  system  and  faith,  if  not  extinguished  in 
all  places  was  held  under  deep  depression.  Buddhism, 
it  is  true,  did  not  consistently  retain  its  purely  philoso- 
phical character,  for  in  course  of  time  it  took  up  some 
of  the  superstitions  of  its  predecessor,  and  practically 
deified  its  founder,  but  in  no  sense  could  it  be  called 
the  ethnic  faith  of  the  people  among  whom  it  rose. 

In  the  west,  while  the  forms  of  the  old  Aryan  reli- 
gion were  still  observed,  and  its  gods,  honored  with 
their  traditional  epitheis  and  worship,  it  was  being 
steadily  undermined  by  the  progress  of  philosophy  and 
popular  intelligence.  Decay  of  faith  in  the  gods  is 
generally  bewailed  or  admitted  by  the  classical  writers 
of  the  period,  who  refer  to  the  subject.  And  the  testi- 
mony becomes  stronger,  both  direct  and  indirect,  as  it 
is  nearer  to  the  christian  era. 


COMPARATIVE   RELIGION. 

In  the  Asiatic  west  and  in  Africa,  the  breaking 
down  was  most  chaotic.  For  there  no  philosophic  sys- 
tem had  come  in  to  sustain  the  minds  of  men,  and  take 
the  place  of  faith.  Ethiopia  was  the  Holy  Land  of 
the  worshippers  of  Amnn,  and  of  the  Ammonian 
Jupiter.  But  Ethiopia  followed  up  her  religious  tradi- 
tion with  no  philosophy,  which  could  impute  a  human 
sense  to  rites  and  practices  w^hicl;  had  lost,  or  parted 
company  with  the  spiritual.  And  so  Ethiopia,  and 
Egypt,  and  their  implicit  pupils,  slowly,  but  surely 
went  down  into  religious  imbecility.  Greek  thought 
was  an  exotic  in  Egypt,  and  could  only  protract  the 
process.  For  Greek  faith  was  itself  letting  go  its  hold 
of  religion  to  grasp  philosophy. 

The  religions  of  Syria  presented  the  type  of  that 
which  was  established  amons^  nations  of  Semitic 
blood  ;  and  which  had  been  carried  to  important  points 
on  the  coast  of  Europe  and  Africa  by  Phenician  colo- 
nies. Its  varieties  had  been  established,  and  munifi- 
cently supported,  in  Nineveh,  Babylon,  Damascus, 
Hamath,  Phenicia,  and  their  respective  dominions ; 
but  in  the  course  of  their  wars  with  each  other,  had 
been  all  successively  humiliated.  For  the  great  Syrian 
and  Assyrian  kings  made  war  upon  the  religion,  as 
well  as  the  civil  power  of  their  enemies,  and  when 
victorious,  carried  the  statues  of  their  gods  into  cap- 
tivity. Sennacherib  boasted  especially  of  the  number 
of  national  gods  he  had  defeated.  And,  when  the 
Persians  came  with  their  monotheistic  views,  it  w^as 
really  to  sweep  all  the  enfeebled  religions  of  that  part 
of  their  conc[uest  into  a  mass  of  ruins.     Subsequently 


SUMMARY.  289 

tlie  Syro-Greek  kings  attempted  to  supply  their  sub- 
jects with  some  degree  of  uniformity  in  religion,  by 
establishing  the  Greek.  But  that  only  added  to  the 
chaos  of  religious  forms,  without  presenting  anything 
to  satisfy  the  mind  of  an  earnest  thinking  man. 

The  Hebrew  scriptures  had  lost  nothing  of  their 
spirituality,  and  they  were  carefully  preserved,  and 
regularly  read  in  all  settlements  of  Jews,  who  pro- 
fessed to  retain  their  Hebrew  nationality.  And  the 
promise  of  a  Saviour,  which  in  those  Scriptures  is  the 
principal  theme,  encouraged  and  cheered  the  heart 
of  the  believer,  and  saved  him  from  the  prevailing 
religious  despondency,  and  spread  abroad  among  the 
nations,  to  which  the  Hebrew  dispersion  extended,  a 
vague  expectation  of  some  great  personage  to  come, 
who  should  instruct  the  world,  and  restore  mankind 
to  the  condition  of  righteousness  and  happiness,  which 
it  was  thought  the  race  had  once  enjoyed. 

But  while  the  reading  of  the  Scriptures  held  up 
among  the  Jews  a  rehgion  equally  spiritual  and  reason- 
able, very  few  of  them  accepted  it  as  such.  The 
greater  number  were  either  rationalists  or  ritualists. 
Pharisees  and  Sadducees  divided  the  expounders  of 
Scripture  between  them.  Both  had  among  them  some 
who  apprehended  the  spirituality  of  their  creed ;  but 
we  have  the  best  authority  for  saying  that  the  Phari- 
sees, as  a  class,  were  mere  formalists,  and  the  doctrine 
of  the  Sadducees  was  unbelief  of  all  spiritual  existence, 
and  of  a  life  to  come. 

There  is  no  record  of  another  such  period  of  deep, 
wide-spread,  and  long-continued  skepticism  as  that 
13 


290  COMPARATIVE   EELTGION. 

which  followed  the  downfall  of  Persia,  or  more  correctly 
the  division  of  the  Macedonian  conquest.  Nor  is  there 
mnch  reason  to  believe  that,  if  that  great  rational  move- 
ment had  not  taken  place,  the  state  of  the  world  would 
have  been  better  ;  more  likely  worse — a  state  of  prostra- 
tion, such  as  actually  has  befallen  the  nations  elsewhere. 
We  know  what  India  became  under  restored  Brahman- 
ism,  and  what  Egyptian  persistent  idolatry  descended 
to.  The  decay  of  faith  in  what  had  forfeited  its 
claim  to  faith  provoked  to  inquiry.  Whatever  a  few 
individuals  may  do,  society  cannot  settle  down  con- 
tented without  religion.  When  constrained  to  aban- 
don an  old  faith,  by  discovering  it  to  be  groundless,  it 
is  only  to  stand  out  in  an  attitude  of  expecting  some- 
thing better — a  state  of  craving  for  truth.  Man's 
sense  of  relation  to  his  Creator  may  be  seriously  vio- 
lated, may  be  long  neglected  or  repressed,  but  cannot 
be  extinguished.  The  human  mind  may  be  terribly 
deceived,  and  rest  in  falsehood,  under  the  color  of 
truth;  it  cannot  rest  in  what  it  recognizes  as  falsehood. 
But  utter  rejection  of  a  Supreme  Being,  or,  at  least 
a  spiritual  law,  is  felt  by  most  of  mankind  to  be  a  false 
position.  National  unbelief  of  all  religion  is  hardly 
possible.  National  skepticism,  whether  of  long  or 
brief  duration,  is  fluctuating  and  transitory  unless 
sustained  by  a  philosophical  system,  and  the  weight 
of  the  learned.  When  the  public  mind  comes  to  rest, 
it  will  be  in  the  belief  of  something  accepted  as  true. 

Such  was  the  condition  of  the  educated  world  in 
the  latter  days  of  the  Roman  Eepublic.  The  old  reli 
gions  had  lost  their  hold  upon  intelligent  men, — in  all 


SUMMARY.  291 

the  great  homes  of  western  civilization  had  completely 
broken  down  into  mere  ceremonies,  whose  only  remain- 
ing dignit}^  was  due  to  their  connection  with  matters 
of  state,  and  their  only  real  weight  to  popular  super- 
stition, sustained  by  the  tricks  of  imposture  and 
the  fears  of  ignorance.  Subsequently,  as  expounded 
and  interpreted  by  some  philosophers  in  controversy 
with  christians,  tlie  more  respectaWe  of  heathen  obser- 
vances enjoyed  a  partial  revival,  but  they  never  re- 
covered the  old  dominion  of  belief  which  they  pos- 
sessed, and  which  gave  them  dignity  prior  to  the 
sixth  century  before  Christ.  "What  is  truth?  "  was 
the  common  inquiry.  And  the  general  impression 
among  educated  men  held  it  to  be  unanswerable. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

THE    SPIKITUAL   DISPENSATION. 

The  next  great  revolution  of  faith  pertaining  to 
general  history,  was  one  which  blazed  up  from  the  very 
midst  of  that  abyss  of  religious  derangement  and 
incredulity.  It  had  no  dependence  upon  any  of  the 
philosophies,  had  no  rationalistic  explanations  with 
which  to  recommend  itself;  and  it  differed  from  the 
systems  of  the  far  east  in  rejecting  the  sufficiency  of 
human  ability.  It  did  not  merely  fall  back  upon 
ancient  revelation  ;  it  professed  to  come  directly  from 
the  councils  of  heaven,  and  to  come  with  a  power  of 
divine  authority  from  which  all  preceding  revelations 
were  to  receive  their  sanction.  In  that  deepest  of  all 
depths  of  unbelief  into  which  the  world  had  ever  been 
plunged,  did  Jesus  of  Kazareth  announce  the  most 
exalted  revelations — the  highest  possible  claims  upon 
faith,  accompanied  by  the  highest  of  all  credentials. 

It  is  within  the  region  of  the  ancient  decaying 
my thologies  of  the  west,  and  among  the  neighboring- 
barbarians,  and  their  descendants,  that  so  far  his  reli- 
gion has  won  its  triumphs.  Not  until  recently  has 
Christianity,  in  its  own  proper  character  as  a  gospel, 
opened  attack  upon  the  systems  of  Confucius  and  Bud- 
dha, or  made  any  important  inroads  upon  Brahman- 
ism.     For,   in  the   hands  of  Jesuit   missionaries   of 


THE    SPIRITUAL    DISPENSATION.  293 

earlier  time,  it  was  presented  as  differing  so  little 
from  them,  that  it  could  not  be  said  so  truly  to  have 
made  converts,  as  that  it  stooped  to  assimilate  itself  to 
them. 

Subsequent  religious  revolutions  of  any  great  im- 
portance have  fallen  within  the  field  of  Christianity. 
They  are  the  Mohammedan  and  the  Protestant — the 
former  an  external  assault  upon  idolatry  and  sacerdotal- 
ism, when  these  practices  were  first  engrafted  upon 
the  Eastern  church  ;  and  the  latter  an  internal  dissent 
from  the  more  numerous  and  matured  corruptions  of 
the  Western  Church  in  later  times. 

Mohammedanism  fell  back  upon  the  fundamental 
elements  of  the  Abrahamic  creed,  and  added  thereto  a 
number  of  its  own  oracles ;  Protestantism  is  the 
Christian  Church  reverting  to  primitive  Christianity, 
to  the  original  Christian  books,  and  to  what  they  sanc- 
tion, and  aims  to  adhere  to  them,  in  their  simplicity, 
and  without  additions. 

Conspicuous  above  all  other  religions,  in  the  power 
with  which  it  has  retained  hold  upon  the  world  of  pro- 
gressive civilization,  is  that  of  the  Hebrews.  Ethnic, 
that  is  addressed  to  the  circumstances  of  the  Israelitish 
nation,  to  some  extent,  and  for  a  period  of  its  history, 
it  gradually  dropped  the  fetters  of  that  limitation ; 
and,  in  its  Christian  form,  abandoned  them  entirely, 
presenting  itself  in  a  simplicity,  a  breadth  and  freedom, 
and  a  fulness  of  grace  adapted  to  the  spiritual  wants 
of  all  mankind.  Among  the  many  legacies  bequeathed 
from  the  early  ages  of  our  race,  none  has  descended 
with  such  purity  and  completeness  as  that  which  comes 


294:  COMPARATIVE   RELIGION. 

to  US  from  the  religion  of  the  Hebrews.  It  has  been 
preserved  in  its  spirit  as  well  as  in  its  form.  The  aim 
of  Christianity  was  not  to  establish  a  philosophy,  a 
priesthood,  or  a  political  system,  but  to  secure  the  sal- 
vation of  souls,  and  the  promotion  of  heart-and-life 
holiness,  under  a  union  betw^een  God  and  man  in  mu- 
tual confidence  and  love.  Its  provisions  were  made 
for  those  spiritual  wants  which  all  men  experience. 
And  it  could  reach  its  own  proper  maturity  only  in 
such  a  form  as  should  present  it  acceptably  to  all  man- 
kind. 

It  may  be  observed  by  every  reader  of  the  Hebrew 
scriptures,  that  the  religious  history  therein  contained 
is  inwoven  with  records  of  ethnic,  civil  and  military 
events.  Until  the  call  of  Abraham,  revelation  was 
committed  equally  to  all  the  descendants  of  Koah,  and 
sacred  history  was  also  universal  history.  From  the 
call  of  Abraham  until  the  migration  to  Egypt,  revela- 
tion belongs  to  the  whole  Abrahamic  race,  and  its  his- 
tory includes  the  children  of  Lot,  of  Ishmael  and  of 
Esau.  After  the  death  of  Jacob,  the  narrative  is  almost 
suspended,  and  no  addition  is  made  to  revelation  for 
ages.  When  it  opens  again,  in  the  Exode  from  Egypt, 
it  is  concerned  with  the  Israelites  alone,  and  w4th 
other  nations  only  in  as  far  as  connected  with  them. 
Ishmaelites,  Edomites,  Moabites  and  Ammonites  have 
become  heathen,  and  sacred  history  touches  them  only 
as  they  affect  Israel,  Revelation  and  the  record  of  it 
are  now  confined  to  the  sons  of  Jacob.  After  the  ten 
tribes  depart  entirely  from  the  God  of  their  fathers, 
and  are  broken  up  as  a  nation,  and  scattered,  the  sacred 


THE    SPIRITUAL   DISPENSATION.  295 

narrative  also  abandons  them,  and  confines  itself  to  the 
kingdom  of  Judah.  Portions  of  the  history  of  Assyria 
are  brought  out,  in  the  account  of  their  overthrow. 
When  the  multitude  of  Judah  also  proved  unfaithful 
to  Jehovah,  and  were  scattered  in  various  lands,  the 
narrative  abandons  all  but  the  few  who  remain  faith- 
ful to  the  spirit  of  their  religion.  It  does  not  go  into 
]S"orthern  Assyria,  and  very  little  into  Egypt,  nor  does 
it  dwell  upon  the  mixed  race,  which  remained  in 
Palestine ;  but  throws  its  light  upon  Babylon,  where 
the  most  faithful  few  spent  the  time  of  their  captivity. 
And  when  Babylon  fell,  beneath  the  arms  of  the 
Modes  and  Persians,  it  records  only  that  victory  of  the 
great  allies,  in  which  the  captives  of  Judah  were  most 
concerned.  More  particular  mention  is  made  of  the 
princes  by  whom  their  religion  was  defended  and  by 
whom  they  were  restored  to  their  own  land,  and  their 
temple  and  city  rebuilt.  It  then  confines  itself  entire- 
ly to  the  restored  remnant. 

Thus,  it  appears  that  the  number  of  those  by 
whom  the  historical  religion  was  faithfully  retained, 
continued  to  diminish  ;  and  ever  as  the  interest  in  it 
was  revived,  by  a  new  interposition  of  revelation,  so 
did  the  observance  of  it  again  decline,  and  become 
limited  to  a  smaller  number.  That  process  continued 
until  the  appearance  of  Christ;  when  only  a  small 
remnant  of  the  Jews  adhered  to  the  forms  of  their  re- 
ligion, and  of  those  but  few  observed  them  in  the 
proper  spirit. 

In  Christ  a  new  process  was  instituted,  consisting 
in  the  expansion  of  the  sphere  of  godliness,  tending 


296  COMPAEATIYE  ,  RELIGION. 

to  that  ultimate  comprehension  of  all  mankind^  which 
it  is  the  aim  of  his  gospel  to  eifect. 

In  view  of  another  point,  a  progress  of  elevation 
and  pnrification  had  been  going  on.  The  number  of 
intelligent  pions  had  progressively  diminished,  but 
ever}^  successive  revelation  had  lifted  the  faithful 
higher  on  the  scale  of  spirituality  and  knowledge. 
The  falling  off  in  numbers  came  of  human  weakness 
and  folly ;  the  increase  of  knoAvledge  and  of  spirituality 
was  of  God  :  the  former  was  natural  development,  the 
latter,  growth  by  successive  acts  of  origination.  Such 
is  the  Hebrew  view  of  the  matter.  I^atural  develop- 
ment of  human  ideas,  or  of  ideas  committed  entirely 
to  that  career,  tends  in  one  way ;  development  con- 
trolled, guided  and  cultured  by  successive  origination 
goes  another  way.  The  former  becomes  human,  and 
limited  by  the  limitations  of  human  capacity  can  make 
only  limited  progress.  It  then  degenerates,  and  re- 
vives again,  if  it  revives,  only  by  returning  to  its  own 
beginning,  to  run  the  same  round  once  more.  The 
sustaining  hand  of  God  is  needed  to  foster  the  plant 
he  has  sown.  Progress  in  the  line  of  revelation  is  the 
only  progress  among  men  which  is  never  backward, 
nor  in  a  cycle,  but  onward  and  upward  continually. 

Although  that  progress  at  certain  stages  takes  up 
elements  which  long  before  seemed  to  have  been 
dropped,  yet  it  never  returns  to  that  stage  at  which 
they  were  dropped ;  but  simply  brings  them  into  the 
place  for  which  they  had  been  deferred.  Thus,  ac- 
cording to  the  same  authority,  one  religion,  in  the  first 
instance,  belonged  to  all  men,  and  its  offices  of  j)rophet, 


THE    SPIRITUAL    DISPENSATION.  297  ' 

priest,  and  king,  resided  in  the  one  head  of  the  tribe 
or  nation.  In  the  changes  wliich  became  necessary  to 
work  reformation,  and  inculcate  spirituality,  those 
offices  were  separated  and  a  particular  nation  Avas 
taken  under  culture,  until  a  few  men  were  actually 
prepared  to  set  up,  live  and  preach  a  purely  spiritual 
kingdom  of  God,  then  are  the  offices  of  prophet,  priest 
and  king  recom«bined  in  one  person,  in  a  dispensation 
of  mercy  once  more  addressed  to  all  mankind.  But 
so  far  from  being  a  return  to  the  original  ground,  it  is 
the  issue  of  an  arduous  process  of  lifting  human  ideas 
from  error  to  truth,  from  the  ritual  to  the  spiritual, 
from  typical  intimations  to  the  fully  developed  pur- 
pose. 

The  most  extensively  accepted  religions  of  the 
world  now  are  Buddhism  and  Christianity ;  the  latter 
founded  upon  the  mercy  of  God  in  an  Almighty 
Saviour ;  the  former  upon  what  man  can  do  for  himself. 
Both  have  undergone  corruption  in  various  quarters; 
but  Buddhist  error  leans  to  trusting  in  Buddha,  while 
Christian  errors  tend  to  trusting  in  something  else  than 
'Christ. 

Mohammedanism  is  an  offshoot  from  the  Hebrew 
and  Christian  religion,  and  all  its  best  elements  it 
holds  in  common  with  them.  Its  relation  to  them  is 
diiferent  from  that  of  Buddhism  to  the  religion  of  the 
Brahmans.  Buddha  rejected  Brahmanism  totally  ig- 
noring all  the  gods  it  taught;  Mohammed  accepted 
tlie  God  of  the  Hebrew  and  Christian  ;  made  it  the 
chief  end  of  his  religion  to  teach  the  sole  existence  of 
God,  in  distinction  from  all  others  that  are  called  God, 
13* 


298  COMPARATIVE   RELIGION . 

to  reverence  his  ancient  worship,  and  to  honor  all  the 
prophets  of  its  canon.  The  errors  of  Mohammedanism 
were  heathen ;  all  that  made  it  powerful  as  a  religion 
was  truth  of  Christian  or  Hebrew  revelation. 

The  greatest  and  most  direct  opponent  of  Christian- 
ity is  Buddhism.  The  former  teaches  salvation  through 
the  merits  of  a  divine  Saviour ;  the  latter  through 
man's  efforts  for  himself  Christianity  is  a  gospel  of 
life  ;  Buddhism,  of  death.  Christianity  proclaims  sal- 
vation into  conscious  blessedness  ;  Buddhism  salvation 
by  means  of  eternal  unconsciousness.  The  former 
brings  life  and  immortality  to  light ;  the  latter  covers 
up  the  future  beneath  a  dreary  hope,  ever  trembling 
on  the  verge  of  nonentity.  The  former  is  a  social  re- 
ligion, designed  to  unite  all  its  adherents  together  in 
love,  through  their  common  love  of  a  Saviour ;  the 
latter  is  monastic,  designed  and  calculated  to  turn 
(}very  man's  thoughts  inward  upon  himself,  not  for  self- 
development,  but  for  suppression  of  the  affections,  and 
just  as  far  as  he  progresses  in  it,  to  separate  him  from 
his  fellow-men.  The  culmination  of  Buddhist  effort  is 
to  detach  its  devotees  from  all  usefulness  in  the  world ; 
the  aim  and  effect  of  pure  Christianity  is  to  make 
men  helpful  to  each  other.  Christianity  is  full  of  hope 
and  faith  in  a  present  and  everlasting  God,  who  is  a 
friend  and  a  father ;  Buddhism  recognizes  no  god, 
unless  a  great  pantheistic  generalization  may  be  so 
called.  It  rests  under  a  perpetual  apprehension  of 
perhaps  not  being  able,  with  all  its  austerities,  to  reach 
tliat  dreary  state  of  negation  which  is  all  it  has  to  ex- 
pect.    Christianity  is  buoyant,  and  full  of  anticipations 


THE    SPIRITUAL    DISPENSATION.  299 

of  progress  for  the  better  in  this  life,  and  of  a  glorious 
]ife  to  come.  The  Buddhist  heaven  is  the  security  of 
insensibility  ;  the  Christian  heaven  is  a  state  of  exalted 
enjoyment,  in  a  perfect  and  glorified  society.  They 
are  direct  antao-onists.  No  other  relio:ion  is  at  the  same 
time  so  flatly  opposed  to  Christianity,  and  so  worthy 
to  be  compared  with  it  as  that  of  Buddha.  Both  teach 
a  pure  moraUty  with  tenderness  and  love.  Both  prom- 
ise salvation  to  suffering  man  ;  and  in  that  sense  are 
gospels  to  their  respective  believers  ;  but  one  is  a  gos- 
pel of  life ;  the  other  virtually  of  death.  One  prom- 
ises salvation  from  an  indefinite  succession  of  degrad- 
ing births,  by  putting  an  end  to  the  susceptibilities  of 
life  ;  the  other  from  the  pangs  of  eternal  death,  by  one 
spiritual  birth  into  larger  capacities.  To  save  from 
evil,  the  one  takes  awa}^  sensation  ;  the  other  confers 
blessedness.  One  claims  to  be  the  highest  eff*ort  of 
human  thought ;  the  other  a  message  from  God. 

Buddhism  had  its  highest  prosperity  before  Chris- 
tianity was  revealed,  and  during  its  ancient  and  mid- 
dle ages.  Of  late  years  Christianity  has  reached  a 
population  about  equal  to  its  rival,  and  is  still  advanc- 
ing, while  Buddhism  is  declining.  The  religion  which 
set  out  with  trusting  in  the  sufticiency  of  human  abil- 
ity, is  now  sluggish  and  despondent ;  while  that  which 
trusts  not  in  man,  and  denies  his  sufficiency  to  himself, 
is  full  of  hope,  enterprise  and  energy^ 

Keligions  have  their  periods  of  youthful  zeal,  pros- 
perity, conservatism,  and  decline.  There  is  only  one 
set  of  doctrines,  which,  although  presented  in  various 
successive  ways,  has  never  been  substantially  other  than 


300  COMPAEATIVE   RELIGION. 

it  is  now.  Some  of  those  doctrines  are  found  in  all  the 
great  religions  ;  bot  in  the  Hebrew  and  Chnstian  they 
have  their  place  in  a  kindred  system,  and  are  combined 
with  others  of  a  more  originating  character  which  appear 
nowhere  else.  In  that  line  of  history,  there  has  been 
iluctuation  in  zeal  and  fidelity,  there  has  been  change 
in  method,  but  always  the  same  doctrine  in  pro- 
gressive clearness  and  fullness  of  exposition.  One 
system  of  doctrine,  animated  by  one  pronnse,  consti- 
tutes the  religion  of  the  Hebrew  and  Christian,  one  in 
life  and  purpose  from  the  l)eginning.  The  same  prom- 
ise followed,  in  the  respective  stages  of  its  history, 
always  by  fulfilment ;  and  in  the  next,  always  expand- 
ing into  wider  meaning,  and  anticipating  a  larger  fulfil- 
ment, is  its  vital  principle.  A  promised  Saviour,  a 
Saviour  present,  who  while  fulfilling  tlie  past  forms  of 
the  promise,  adds  new  elements  to  it,  which  yet  belong 
to  the  import  of  the  original  promise ;  and  still  a 
further  unfolding  of  the  import  and  a  fuller  fulfilment 
is  before  the  eye  of  hope  and  faith.  Present  fulfil- 
ment, while  outrunning  the  anticipations  from  ancient 
promise,  unfolds  into  the  blossom  of  a  new  and 
grander  promise ;  and  still  the  Christian  prays  *'  Thy 
Kingdom  come." 

The  history  of  what  is  now  the  christian  church  is 
the  outward  progress  of  one  cause.  Of  no  other  re- 
liction can  it  be  said  that  from  the  earliest  record  of 
human  existence  it  has  observed  the  same  unvarying 
aim  through  all  the  accretions  which  at  times  have  ac- 
cumulated around  it.  Through  all  the  mistakes  of 
those  who  have  professed  belief  in  it,  through  periods 


THE    SPIRITUAL    DISPENSATION.  301 

of  beniglited  barbarism  and  the  elegant  vices  of  high 
civiHzation,  proclaiming  the  same  message,  irrepressi- 
ble by  persecution  and  incorruptible  by  success,  it  has 
pursued  inflexibly  the  direct  line  of  its  own  proper 
progress.  Others  have  been  successful  for  a  time,  and 
within  the  range  of  their  own  respective  ethnic  affin- 
ities ;  but,  without  exception,  have  degenerated  into 
corruption,  rotting  to  the  core,  until  reform  cannot  find 
one  healthy  point  for  reaction.  In  Christianity,  under 
its  deepest  depression,  there  have  always  been  energies 
competent  to  reform. 

Christian  history  exhibits  a  repetition  of  the  changes 
which  made  up  the  preceding  history  of  the  religious 
world.  First,  there  was  its  period  of  primitive  faith, 
in  the  days  of  its  apostles,  apostolic  fathers,  and  early 
defenders.  Then  came  its  period  of  legalism,  when,  in 
the  constitution  of  Constantine,  it  took  its  place  in 
union  with  the  state.  A  long  reign  of  sacerdotalism 
followed,  in  which  all  the  steps  of  degeneracy  recurred 
after  their  ancient  order,  only  restrained  and  modified 
by  the  spiritual  life  which  dwelt  in  the  church,  and 
which  all  the  legal  apparatus  of  the  church,  though 
calculated  to  crush  out,  or  render  inactive,  was  never 
able  entirely  to  subdue.  When  that  course  of  things 
could  no  longer  be  endured  by  all,  the  revolt  of  human 
reason  followed,  analogous  to  the  vaster  movements  of 
the  centuries  immediately  preceding  Christ.  Two 
hundred  years  before  the  reformation  of  religion  was 
able  to  maintain  itself  efi'ectively,  disgusted  reason  rose 
in  rebellion  against  sacerdotal  assumption,  and  re- 
strained it  by  limitations  of  civil  law,  popular  intelli- 
gence, and  common  sense. 


302  COMPAEATIYE    KELIGION. 

The  men  who  revived  the  study  of  the  civil  law, 
who  rekindled  the  flame  of  learning,  and  laid  the  foun- 
dations of  niodei-n  literature,  and  disseminated  among 
the  people  the  first  ideas  of  modern  freedom,  were  the 
pioneers  of  intellectual  emancipation.  Analogous  to 
the  first  publication  of  the  gospel,  reformation  of  the 
church  followed  when  it  had  become  indispensable  for 
men  fully  prepared  to  distinguish  between  a  true  spirit- 
ual faith  and  the  blinding  forms  and  falsehoods  in  which 
it  was  enveloped.  Keformed  religion  has  all  along  ever 
since  contended  against  both  declining  sacerdotalism, 
and  increasing  rationalism  ever  tending  into  religious 
infidelity.  As  free  thought  extends  its  area,  it  is  ever 
encountered  by  the  advocates  of  a  free  gospel,  which 
is  rapidly  extending  itself  to  every  country  of  the 
Christian  name,  and  as  Christianity  is  the  religion  of 
the  ruling  races,  is  also  extending  to  the  world  in  gen- 
eral. The  same  questions,  now  shaking  the  unchris- 
tian legalisms  of  Christendom,  are  overthrowing  belief 
in  the  religions  of  heathenism.  For  free  thought 
awakens  inquiry  which  nothing  but  the  Christian  rev- 
elation answers.  The  rational  movement  of  modern 
times  promises  to  be  of  still  greater  breadth  and 
power  than  that  of  the  five  centuries  preceding  Christ, 
and  to  continue  its  progress,  side  by  side  with  evan- 
gelical religion,  until  it  shall  pervade  the  world. 
Christianity  has  nothing  to  fear  from  that  contact,  that 
rivalry,  nothing  to  fear  from  comparison  or  criticism. 
Hitherto  it  has  increased  in  clearness  and  power  of 
self-exposition  with  every  discovery  of  science,  and 
everv  achievement  of  research. 


RECAPITULATION.  303 


RECAPITULATION. 


It  is  probable  that  the  oldest  extant  writings  are 
recent  as  compared  with  the  origin  of  the  human  race, 
and  yet  they  have  a  peculiar  relation  to  it.  They  are 
of  a  certain  patriarchal  simplicity,  they  picture  life  in 
a  primitive  state,  and,  as  far  as  historical,  are  concerned 
with  the  beginnings  of  society.  They  are  religions, 
and  record  acts  of  religious  persons;  but  prescribe  no 
forms  of  devotion.  Any  prayers  or  adorations  or  rites 
contained  in  the  book  of  Genesis,  or  the  Shoo-King, 
are  only  occasional  and  incidentally  mentioned.  And 
yet  religious  things  are  so  plainly  mentioned  that  little 
doubt  can  rest  upon  the  nature  of  the  creed,  or  the 
parts  of  which  worship  consisted. 

2.  Xext  oldest  are  some  of  the  carefully  composed 
prayers  and  songs  of  praise,  and  of  blessing,  as  those 
recorded  of  Isaac  and  of  Jacob,  and  of  some  of  the 
early  Chinese  monarchs. 

3.  But  with  the  idea  of  careful  preparation  of  such 
exercises,  came  also  that  of  careful  arrangement  of  the 
parts  of  divine  service  in  a  prescribed  order.  The 
establishment  of  a  ritual  to  which  all  should  conform 
was  the  subject  of  the  next  oldest  scriptures.  There 
was  an  Egyptian  ritual  embodied  in  writing  long  be- 
fore Moses.  A  national  ritual,  though  perhaps  un- 
written, it  is  also  apparent,  existed  in  India,  and  in 
China  before  the  collecting  of  their  hymns. 

4.  At  the  next  step,  the  order  of  succession  differs 
in  different  countries.  In  Hebrew,  it  is  the  giving  of 
the  law,  which  is  recounted  historically,  but  also  inci- 


SOtt  COMPARATIVE   KELIGION. 

den  tall)'  the  composition  of  sacred  poetry.  In  India 
and  China  it  was  the  multiplication  of  h_ymns,  includ- 
ing well  ordered  prayer,  going  on  for  many  genera- 
tions; and  also  among  the  Persians,  though  in  that 
case,  as  the  work  of  one  man. 

5.  ISQxt  was  the  collecting  and  classifying  and  per- 
haps selecting  of  the  hymns. 

6.  Succeeding  scriptures  of  India  and  Persia  con- 
sist of  liturgies  in  which  hymns,  or  parts  of  hymns,  are 
arranged  into  suitable  places  in  the  prescribed  ritual. 
At  tliis  point  again  the  Hebrew  differs  from  the  rest. 
For  while  a  great  addition  of  hymns  was  made  to  the 
national  worship,  no  liturgical  book  was  prepared  to 
prescribe  their  use.  The  great  choir  instituted  by 
David  is  described  in  its  chronological  place  ;  but  the 
order  of  its  performances,  and  their  places  in  relation 
to  the  other  parts  of  the  service  are  not  mentioned, 
much  less  prescribed. 

7.  In  the  sequel  of  the  liturgical  scriptures  of 
India  followed  annotations,  commentaries  and  books 
of  law  ;  in  Persia,  law  alone.  Witliin  the  same  period, 
the  new  Chinese  scriptures  consisted  of  chronicles  and 
moral  and  political  instruction.  Among  the  Hebrews 
progress  omitted  commentaries  on  older  scriptures,  and 
made  little  addition  to  the  law,  but  proceeded  in  the 
channels  of  history  and  prophecy  towards  further  un- 
folding of  the  spiritual  element  in  the  national  worship. 

8.  Subsequently  to  the  great  rationalist  era,  the 
scriptures  of  China  and  of  Buddhism  were  philosophi- 
cal and  moral.  In  Persia,  no  addition  was  made  ;  but 
the   Avestan   religion   was  more  widely  enforced  by 


RECAPITrLATION.  305 

civil  authority.  Greece  had  no  sacred  scriptures,  prop- 
erly so  called  ;  but  her  epic  literature,  and  choral  odes 
took  their  place  to  some  extent ;  and  these,  within  the 
same  period,  began  to  be  counterbalanced  by  philoso- 
phy, and  there  as  well  as  in  Kome,  the  character  of  law, 
as  a  part  of  religion,  to  be  superseded  by  the  idea  of 
law  as  of  human  institution.  Hinduism,  as  its  sacred 
books  multiplied,  went  more  extensively  into  theo- 
sophic  speculation,  and  mythological  fable.  Hebrew 
scriptures  turned  not  aside  from  prophecy  and  records 
of  the  time. 

Later  heathen  scriptures,  with  little  exception, 
were  not  designed  for  the  general  public,  but  for 
priests,  or  rulers,  or  at  most,  for  a  learned  class.  The 
Hebrew  law  was  appointed  for  all  classes  of  the  people 
to  know.  And  the  subsequent  scriptures  were  directly 
addressed  to  the  public.  They  were  of  an  attractive 
and  popular  character.  With  exception  of  the  law  of 
Moses,  the  Bible  has  very  little  of  the  sacerdotal  about 
it, — ^less  than  any  other  of  the  later  scriptures,  except 
the  Chinese,  and  they  are  merely  moral  and  political. 
The  Bible  is  also  spiritual. 

The  whole  history,  until  the  time  of  Christ,  divides 
itself  iuto  three  grand  periods ;  the  patriarchal,  the 
legal,  and  the  rational. 

1.  The  iirst  principle  of  religion  is  one  God,  to 
whom  all  men  are  responsible.  Of  this  the  educated 
priesthood  never  entirely  lost  sight ;  but,  while  they 
ministered  in  the  popular  polytheisms,  and  no  doubt 
in  most  cases  believed  them,  retained  among  them- 


306  COMPAKATIYE    EELIGIOX. 

selves,  in  one  way  or  another,  the  doctrine  of  one  spir- 
itual and  supreme  Being,  who  was  the  real  power  over 
all,  or  in  all. 

2.  God  was  conceived  of  in  the  first  instance  as 
personal,  occasionally  visiting  his  worshippers  as  a  just, 
but  benign  patriarchal  ruler.  In  this  idea  there  was 
an  inconsistent  combination  of  the  human  and  divine, 
the  material  and  spiritual,  from  which  several  lines  of 
thinking  radiated. 

3.  Polytheism,  in  some  quarters,  grew  out  of  the 
union  of  several  states  into  one,  each  retaining  its  own 
idea  of  God ;  in  others,  from  looking  at  the  various 
objects,  or  operations  of  nature  as  manifestations  of 
God,  and  in  that  light  as  God ;  in  others  by  employ- 
ing certain  objects  as  symbols  of  God  ;  in  others  by 
conceiving  of  the  divine  government  as  conducted  by 
the  agency  of  divine  beings,  in  their  respective  juris- 
dictions ;  or  by  thinking  of  great  or  holy  men  as,  after 
their  death,  maintaining  a  spiritual  supervision  over 
their  descendants,  or  followers. 

4.  Idolatry  in  all  cases  grew  out  of  man's  sensuous 
nature,  seeking  to  give  the  objects  of  his  worship  a 
visible,  or  tangible  form,  sometimes  as  the  fruit  of 
symbolism,  and  sometimes  of  the  personal,  degenera- 
ting into  the  anthropomorphic,  idea  of  God.  The 
reformations,  wliich  have  done  most  for  the  dignity 
and  energy  of  human  character,  have  rejected  it.  In 
connection  with  polytlieism  it  has  done  more  than 
anything  else  to  lower  the  popular  idea  of  God,  each 
succeeding  step  in  its  history  being  one  of  degradation. 
And  the  gods  lowest  on  the  scale  are  always  favorites 


KECAPITULATION.  307 

in  the  popular  mythology,  and  receive  the  most  abun- 
dant and  immediate  worship. 

5.  The  platform  upon  which  sacerdotal  Theosophy 
and  popular  idolatry  meet  is  the  great  pantheistic 
Triad  of  the  Creator,  the  Preserver,  the  Destroyer ; 
according  to  speculation  representing  the  order  of  the 
Universe  operating  in  a  cycle  of  everlasting  revolution  ; 
and  in  the  eye  of  popular  belief  consisting  of  three 
gods,  a  father,  a  friend,  and  an  enemy.  Polytheism 
generalizes  into  pantheism,  and  pantheism  germinates 
on  every  hand,  into  polytheism. 

The  great  religions  of  China,  India,  Persia,  and  the 
Hebrews,  at  the  earliest  ascertainable  stage,  held  very 
nearly  the  same  fundamental  doctrines  and  practice, 
which,  in  Genesis  are  assigned  to  the  covenant  with 
Noah.  But  the  diiference  between  them  increased  with 
the  progress  of  their  history,  and  the  ends  they  reached 
were  very  far  apart.  The  simple  and  truthful  spiritu- 
ality of  the  earliest  Scriptures  were  progressively,  and 
at  last  completely,  abandoned  by  the  later  in  all  cases 
but  one.  The  Hebrseo-Christian  Scriptures  not  only 
retained  the  spirituality  of  their  earlier  books,  but  be- 
came more  elevated  and  heavenly  towards  the  close. 
If  the  other  scriptures  had  maintained  the  religious 
character  with  which  they  all  began,  the  later  Hebrew 
scriptures  would  have  greatly  surpassed  them.  As  it 
is,  in  the  degeneracy  of  the  later  heathen,  and  the  as- 
cending progress  of  the  Hebrseo-Christian,  the  relation 
ceases  to  be  comparison,  and  becomes  contrast. 

In  literary  character,  all  of  these  Scriptures,  as  far 
as  now  accessible  to  the  English  reader,  are  possessed 


308  COMPAEATIYE    RELIGION. 

of  very  great  merit  ;  tlie  Chinese  retaining  a  charming 
union  of  dignity  with  archaic  simplicity,  a  little  stiif, 
like  the  manners  of  a  gentleman  of  the  olden  time  ;  the 
Hindu,  disjointed  in  form,  but  affluent  in  thought,  to 
the  opposite  extremes  of  criticism  and  imagination ; 
the  Persic,  presenting  a  little  group  of  poems  beautiful 
both  in  symmetry  of  structure,  and  moral  and  religious 
sentiment,  imbedded  in  a  liturgy,  and  connected  with 
a  law,  for  which,  as  literature,  there  is  not  much  to  be 
said  ;  in  point  of  form,  nothing  can  excel  the  epic  litera- 
ture and  choral  l3^rics  of  Greece  ;  but,  if  to  simplicity, 
and  form,  and  affluence,  and  imagination,  we  add  ma- 
jestic weight  of  meaning,  and  splendor  and  variety  of 
imagery,  with  a  health}^  good  sense  on  the  subject  of 
religion,  w^e  shall  not  exceed  the  literar}^  merits  of  the 
Hebrew^,  whose  superiority^  to  all  the  rest  would  be 
best  demonstrated  by  an  edition  of  them  all  together 
in  parallel  columns. 

Beginning  with  those  primary  elements  of  worship 
which  have  been  ascertained  to  belong  to  all  the  most 
ancient  book-religions,  we  find  historical  progress  ex- 
hibits variation  from  them  according  to  certain  princi- 
ples, which  are  also  similar  in  all. 

1.  Worship  was  first  unconstrained,  private,  and 
domestic.  It  consisted  of  adoration,  prayer,  vows,  and 
offerings,  especially  sacrifice. 

2.  jS'atural  and  undisturbed  progress  insisted  upon 
careful  repetition  in  successive  services  of  what  had 
been  considered  acceptable  in  the  foregoing,  and  there- 
by established  the  sanctity  of  the  forms. 


RECAPITULATION.  309 

3.  The  observation  of  the  forms  became  good  works, 
above  all  other  works  gratifying  to  the  deity. 

4.  Another  step  of  progress  was  to  increase  the 
number  of  rites,  both  regular  and  occasional,  the  better 
to  secure  divine  favor,  under  the  impression  that  the 
more  of  such  service  paid,  the  better  would  God  be 
pleased. 

5.  It  became  a  matter  of  national  importance  to 
enforce  by  law  the  performance  of  the  rites  according 
to  prescribed  rule  ;  precision  being  essential  to  the  va- 
lidity of  the  service. 

6.  In  long  course  of  continual  repetition  of  legal 
rites,  the  worshippers  lost  sight  of  the  doctrines  im- 
plied, and  observed  the  rites  for  the  merit  which  was 
deemed  resident  in  them. 

All  the  religions  of  which  we  are  speaking,  did 
not  assume  those  different  stages  in  one  distinct  and 
uniform  way ;  nor  did  all  their  adherents  reach  the 
same  extreme.  Because  the  circumstances  of  the 
nations  were  different,  and  revolutions,  partial  or  gen- 
eral, broke  up  regularity.  Moreover,  our  information 
is  too  defective  on  some  points  for  a  complete  compari- 
son. But,  in  as  far  as  undisturbed  progress  has  been 
recorded,  worshippers  always  manifested  the  tendency 
to  that  direction,  and  the  great  body  of  them  in  all 
those  religions  pursued  it  to  its  lowest  stage. 

Historical  progress  in  the  ministry  of  religion  ad- 
vanced by  a  kindred  process. 

First,  the  natural  li^ead  of  the  family  was  the  sole 
minister  of  religion  for  his  family. 


310  COMPARATIVE   EELIGION. 

Second,  when  the  family  became  a  tribe,  or  nation, 
its  head  became  chief  priest,  with  a  number  of  assistant 
priests. 

A  third  stage  was  that  of  a  legally  constituted 
hierarchy  of  different  ranks  for  different  offices,  with 
the  king  as  head  of  its  authority. 

In  some  quarters,  the  latter  element  gave  place  to 
the  hierarchy  of  a  separate  family,  or  class  recognized 
in  the  state  as  the  lawful  ministers  of  religion,  with  a 
chief  of  their  own ;  a  state  of  things  the  most  conser- 
vative and  tenacious  of  existence.  To  limit  the  power 
of  such  a  hierarchy,  where  it  exists,  is  always  one  of  tho 
most  obvious  duties  of  a  reformation.  To  a  progressive 
change  of  that  kind  belonged  the  elective  priestly 
offices  of  Greece  and  Rome.  But  reformation  can 
seldom  or  ever  return  to  the  patriarchal  ministry.  It 
can  only  simplify  as  far  as  possible,  and  guard  against 
abuse.  But  however  simple  the  reformed  institution, 
and  careful  the  checks  applied,  it  is  liable  to  be  sub- 
jected to  the  same  process  again. 

In  the  Hebrew  religion  existed  the  most  effective 
checks  upon  that  natural  progress,  whereby  the  faith- 
ful believer  was  sustained,  and  upon  which  the  intelli- 
gent reformer  took  his  stand.  And  within  its  pale, 
although  the  multitude,  priests  and  people,  went  the 
way  of  the  rest  of  the  world,  consistent  development 
of  its  truth  was  carried  forward  by  the  few  who  were 
faithful  to  its  scriptures. 

A  ritual  religion,  when  spiritual  meaning  has  de- 
serted its  rites,  provokes  intelligent  men  to  reforma- 


RECAPITULATION.  311 

tion,  or  to  skepticism.  The  easiest  and  shortest  road 
is  that  of  skepticism.  Honest  reformation  goes  back 
to  restore  the  meaning  which  originally  dictated  the 
rites,  or  further  back  to  the  authority  for  that  mean- 
ing itself,  and  for  the  priesthood  connected  with  it. 

In  brief,  it  may  be  said  that, 

I.  The  natural  course  of  religious  progress  is  from 
simple  to  complex ; 

1.  Popular  religious  progress  towards  complexity 
in  elements  of  worship  and  objects  of  veneration  ; 

2.  Scholastic  religious  progress  towards  complexity 
of  doctrine  and  exposition :  and 

3.  Sacerdotal  religious  progress  towards  complex- 
ity of  rites,  regulations,  ranks  and  duties. 

II.  The  course  of  reformation  is  from  complex  to 
simple,  either 

1.  On  the  authoritative  ground  of  returning  to. 
primitive  doctrine  and  practice ;  or 

2.  On  the  philosophic  ground  of  a  more  compre- 
hensive classification  of  truth. 

III.  Every  reformation,  however  simple,  when  once 
established  in  security,  is  liable  to  be  again  carried  into 
the  current  of  general  tendency.  Human  nature  grav- 
itates towards  the  complex  in  religious  observances. 
Simplicity  can  be  maintained  only  by  the  constant 
watchfulness  of  intelligence. 

lY.  Philosophy,  however  excellent  in  itself,  does 
not  answer  the  purpose  of  religion.  For  religion  is 
trust  in  a  superior  Being;  philosophy  is  trust  in  human 
reason  ;  when  substituted  for  religion,  it  unsettles  faith, 


312  COMPARATIVE   RELIGION. 

and  creates  moral  disorganization.  Even  Buddhism, 
in  order  to  success,  had  to  become  trust  in  Buddha,  as 
a  supernatural  being. 

y.  Society  cannot  rest  satisfied  without  a  religion 
in  which  it  can  beUeve.  Unsettled  skepticism  is  not 
so  hopeless  a  religious  state  as  confidence  in  error. 

All  the  ancient  extant  Scriptures  began  with 
teaching  or  implj-ing  the  nearness  and  love  of  God  to 
man.  All  the  later,  except  the  Hebr?eo-Christian, 
gradually  moved  away  from  that  ground,  until  the 
idea  of  God  was  divided  into  that  of  a  being  removed 
to  an  infinite  distance,  'a  mere  abstract  conception 
of  impersonal  power ;  or  on  the  other  hand,  that  of 
a  god,  or  gods,  on  a  level  with  the  nature  of  man,  or 
beneath  it, — a  stock,  or  a  etone,  or  an  animal ;  and  in 
both  inculcating  servile  fear. 

The  Hebrggo-Christian  Scriptures  consistently 
taught  the  same  majestic,  but  tender,  love  of  God, 
united  harmoniously  with  justice  and  might.  Progress 
consisted  in  the  increasing  clearness,  fulness,  and  ten- 
derness of  revelation.  Beginning  where  all  the  rest 
began,  that  series  of  Scriptures  alone  continued  in  the 
line  of  consistent  unfolding  of  the  paternal  love  of 
God,  efficient  to  the  salvation  of  men. 


SOURCES  OF  informatio:n^  on  the  history 

OF  ANCIENT  RELIGIONS. 


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• ,  Commentaire  sur  le  Yagna. 

14 


314  SOURCES    OF    INFORMATION. 

BuNSEN  (C.  C.  J.),  Egypt's  place  in  General  History. 

Chabas  (F.),  Les  Pasteurs  en  Egypte. 

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other  philosophical  treatises. 
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the  Hindus. 
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SOURCES   OF    INFORMATION.  315 

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Momsen  (Theodore),  History  of  Greece. 
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316  SOURCES   OF   INFORMATION. 

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THE   END. 


<^    Xc-eX^,-     /-     f.^. 


